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PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION, 1867. 
REPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS. 



REP^OIIT 



CLOTHING Am WOVEN FABRICS, 



CLASSES TWENTY-SEVEN TO THIRTY-NINE 



GROUP FOUR. 

BY 

PARAN STEVENS. 

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER. 



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WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTINCx OFFICE, 

1870. 



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INTEODUCTION. 



The United States Commissiouers to the Paris Exiiositioii of 1867 
appointed a committee consisting of Professor J. Lawrence Smith, Doc- 
tor W. E. Johnston, and myself, to report on the Products of Chemistry, 
on the Preparation of Food, and upon Clothing. 

It was not found convenient to pursue this labor jointly, and the report 
on chemicals was undertaken by Commissioner Smith, the report on food 
by Commissioner Johnston, and that upon clothing was left to the under- 
signed. 

Without any special qualifications for this work derived from my 
habitual pursuits, or any opportunity for preparation, I occupied myself 
with the collection of materials and memoranda for the report. Among 
the more important of these materials I mention the valuable reports in 
French upon some of the classes by members of the International Jury, 
from which translations have been freely made. With these reports, 
and with the excellent assistance I was able to procure, I have completed 
the task which fell to me, and now submit the result to the Deiiartment 
with the hoi)e that it may be found of some practical interest and value. 

PAEAK STEVENS, 
United States Commissioner. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHANGES IN THE FASHION OF AYEAEING APPAREL— COSTUMES, 

The A'ariety of objects, included under the head of clothing — History of the changes in 
clothing — Laws enacted to prevent extraA^agance in dress — Progress of fashion in 
various countries — Causes of changes in fashions — The motive of gain — Ea^iid spread 
of ne\Y modes due to increased facilities of communication — Esthetic influences of 
dress — Paris the great center of modern fashions — Science and industry stimulated 
1)y changes in fashion — Exhibition of specimens of costumes of various races — His- 
torical and fancy costumes — Influence of costumes upon the habits of the peoide — 
The costumes of various countries. — pp. 7-25. 

CHAPTER II. 

MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING. 

Cotton fabrics from France, Great Britain, and other countries — Cotton manufacture 
in the United States — Linen and linen fabrics ; enormous consumption of, in France — 
Various styles of linen goods shown in the French section — Relative importance of 
the linen manufacture in various countries — Flax and linen in Italy — Manufacture of 
wool and worsted — The British artizaus on worsted and mixed textile fabrics — Silk 
as a material for clothing — The silk trade of France — Sericulture in France — General 
observations upon the silk industry of various countries — Ribbons. — pp. 27-44. 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE INDUSTRY OF READY-MADE CLOTHING. 

The artistic excellence of wearing apparel produced in Paris — Statistics of the manu- 
facture in France — The tailoring trade in France — Ready-made clothing for women — 
The seamstresses' art in Paris — The manufacture of hats for men and women — Cork 
hats — Centers of the hat trade in France, and statistics of the manufacture — Boots 
and shoes — Manufacture of clothing in the United States — Head-dresses for ladies — 
Artificial flowers. — jip. 45-59. 

CHAPTER ly. 

LACES, FANS, GLOVES, ETC. 

The manufacture of rare and costly lace by hand — Notices of specially interesting 
exhibitions of lace — Machine-made laces— Wages, conditions, and divisions of 
labor — Education of lace-makers — The British artisans iipon lace— Manufacture of 
lace in various countries — Embroidery — Manufacture of fans — Manufacture of gloves 
in France, England, and other countries — Elastic tissues, susiieuders, belts, garters, 
and bracelets. — pp. 61-78. 



6 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

CHAPTER V. 

INFLUENCE OF CLOTHING UPON HEALTH. 

The infliieuce of woolen clotbiug — Effects of wooleus iqjon the skin — Shaggy wooleu 
o-oods — Protection afforded by wooleus fi-orn the effects of sudden changes of temper- 
ature — Woolens should be worn at night — Evil effects of clothing impervious to air. 
—pp. 79-84. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



CLOTHING. 



CHAPTEE I. 

CHANGES IN THE FASHION OF CLOTHING— COS- 
TUMES. 

The variety of objects included under the head of clothing — History of the 
changes in clothing — laws enacted to prevent extravagance in dress — pro- 
GRESS OP FASHIONS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES — CAUSES OF CHANGES IN FASHIONS — ThE 
MOTIVE OF GAIN — EaPID SPREAD OP NEW MODES DUE TO INCREASED FACILITIES OF 

communication — esthetic influences op dress— paris the great center op 
modern fashions — science and industry stimulated by changes in fashion — 
Exhibition of specimens op costumes op various races — Historical and p.\ncy 
COSTUMES — Influence of costumes upon the habits of the people — The cos- 
tumes of various countries. 

Ill the classiflcation adopted by tlie Imperial Commission, "Clothing, 
including fabrics and other objects worn on the person," were assigned 
to Group IV, Classes 27 to 39. 

It was obviously impossible to enter upon an exhaustive discussion 
of the wide range of subjects which were here grouped together. It 
was one of the most comprehensive groujis in the whole Exj)osition, 
including not only made-up clothing for both sexes, but cotton, linen, 
woolen and silken fabrics ; hats, bonnets, gloves, umbrellas, articles 
used in traveling, laces, and ornaments of all kinds. Special reports 
upon cotton, wool and silk, as raw materials, and ijartly upon the manu- 
factures of each, having been made by others, the present report is 
confined more exclusively to clothing, and those objects which are 
accessory either for comfort or ornament, and the effort has been made 
to i)resent some statistical data of general interest and application. 
The number of exhibitors in these classes was considerably over one 
thousand. France had two hundred and nineteen. Great Britain forty- 
two, and the United States nine. 

HISTOEY OF CLOTHmG. 

The history of clothing, it may be said, is coeval and intimately asso- 
ciated with the social and political history of man ; and when the task 
of setting forth intelligibly the subject of clothing, as one of the great 
prime necessities of the human family, and in its economic relations to 
other industries represented at the Universal Exposition, is entered 
upon, it will be proper that some historical outline of the changes which 



8 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

have occurred in the attire of both sexes should at the same time be 
I)laced before the reader. In fact, as it was intended that the Exposi- 
tion shouhl be universal, not only showing the present stage of advance- 
ment in all useful productions of human industry or skill and the modes 
of production throughout the world, but all of the various preceding 
stages of progress, the articles, the manner of using, and the processes 
of fabrication, to omit such a retrospect as that referred to w^ould be 
ignoring the spirit in which this c(^mprehensive epitome of the pro- 
ductive energies, inventive resources, and progress of the world was 
conceived. 

In the early ages of the world dress was simple as the manners of the 
l^eople who inhabited it, being at first composed of leaves, feathers, and 
the skins of animals. Gradually the inventions of tanning, spinning, 
weaving and dyeing were adopted, and mankind yielded to the tempta- 
tions of vanity. They abandoned the simple modes of their forefathers 
and gave themselves up to the most luxurious and costly adornment 
of their persons. 

To such a height did this devotion to dress and finery attain, that 
decrees and ordinances have from time to time been adopted by many 
nations to lessen the growing evil. So great has been the passion for 
dress in some periods, that revolutions have resulted from the attempted 
enforcement of sumptuary laws and edicts intended for the prevention 
of extravagance. 

When the Tartar conquerors of China ordered that the luxuriant 
tresses of the native inhabitants should be cut oif, the victims regarded 
it as such an indignity that in many instances the native Chinese pre- 
ferred loshig their heads to submitting to the decree. 

In Spain, also, violent disturbances were caused in the last century 
by an attemi)t to prohibit the use of the capa and sombrero. 

In Engljyid many efforts have, at times, been made by the governing- 
powers to check not only extravagance in dress, so far as richness and 
splendor of materials were concerned, but also to change the cut and 
style of various parts of the apparel of both sexes. Several of the 
earlier monarchs attempted to restrict the length of pointed shoes, and 
though fashion yielded to the sustained attacks, she revenged herself 
by the introduction of shoes of such extravagant width that another 
restraint was soon imposed by the royal authority. 

Queen Elizabeth made many laws affecting the attire of her subjects, 
though she was proverbial for her fondness of dress and the singularity 
of the fashions she preferred. She comi^elled the peasantry to wear a 
cap of a certain shape, and, probably to encourage home industry, as 
well as to restrain the mania for foreign fashions which had long been 
prevalent among her subjects, she ordered that this head-dress should 
be of domestic wool and manufacture. She also limited the size of ruffs 
and swords to be worn by her courtiers to the proportions she regarded 
becoming in subjects to adopt, and appointed ofdcers to watch for vio- 



CLOTFIING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 9 

lations of the law, and to break all swords and clip all ruffles exceeding 
tlie prescribed limit. She also entered with much detail into the regula- 
tion of the costume worn at the inns of court, specifying forms, colors, 
and the quantity of embroidery to be used. 

The Turks have also in times past set their faces against the use, on 
the part of Grecian ladies, of long skirts peculiar to their traditional 
and classic mode, and officers have been appointed to cut off any su- 
perfluous length. The Turks have established many other regidations 
concerning distinctive dress, such as a monopoly to themselves of yellow 
slippers, rich silk or musliu turbans, and shawls of the gayest designs 
and textures, while they required their Grecian vassals to wear dark 
cotton caps, the Armenians to adopt grotesque pumi)kin-shaped capas, 
while brimless caps, shaped like inverted flower-i>ots, were prescribed 
for the tTews. 

Of late years, however, the Turks themselves have yielded reluctant 
obedience to a decree of Sultan Mahmoud, ordering that a red cloth fez 
or military cap should be worn by Mussulmans in place of the calpac or 
turban. This ordinance was violently opposed and protested against, and 
those who favored it had their houses fired ; and though the will of the 
Sultan prevailed, the Turks have never recovered from their disgnst at 
the supplanting of the cherished turban so long worn by their ancestry. 

Charles the Second, of England, prescribed a particular costume for 
the nobility to wear, dispensing with extravagant display of gold, sil- 
ver, lace, and jewels, which had distinguished the preceding j)eriod of 
his reign. 

Gustavus, one of the kings of Sweden, prescribed a court dress for 
each sex, to be worn when they were admitted to his presence. 

Napoleon the First, against much opposition and criticism, exercised 
his imperial authority in the same direction ; and in times of great 
political agitation, his proceedings on the subject were discyissed with 
much vehemence and interest in the national convention of France. 

It is difficult to realize that France, the dispenser of modes and of 
the most elaborate and beautiful materials and articles of dress, was in 
her infancy as primitive and rude as any of the other countries of Eu- 
rope in matters of costume and toilet. Skins fashioned into a form 
which might be described as a tunic, with the addition in winter of a 
cloak which, fastened over one shoulder, descended nearly to the 
ground, and a skin cap of very simple form, constituted the dress of the 
men. The women wore almost the same attire, only the tunic was 
longer, and the cap triangular in shape. But even in that primitive 
period, tradition says, they exhibited a market! predilection for such 
personal decorations as necklaces, bracelets, rings, and chains. Ancient 
statuary has been exhumed in that countrj^, in which the figures were 
dressed in tunics with long sleeves reaching to the hand, the over dress 
being similar to the Eoman sagum, with the addition of sleeves. On 
the heads of the figures were caps resembling the Phrygian bonnet. 



10 PARIS UXIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Some variety is exhibited in the minor details of their dress. For a long 
I)eriod the higher classes wore long robes trimmed with ermine or other 
valuable furs. The early kings of France, beginning with Clovis, wore 
a tunic and a mantle resembling the Grecian chlamy. 

Changes are first to be noticed in the garments which are represented 
in two statues of Charlemagne. The first gives a moustache, but is 
without any indication of a beard, a tunic terminating above the knees, 
and a chlamy with a wide border ; fillets bound crosswise cover the 
legs. The costume of the other figure consists of a garment similar to 
a modern surtout. It has large broad sleeves with deep cufts turned 
back, and a square collar. It is quite remarkable that this dress is or- 
namented with large round buttons, an article generally supposed to 
have been unknown at so early a period. 

In the manuscript illuminations of the reign of St. Louis, the princes 
are portrayed in variously shaped habits. This leads to the belief that 
fashion was then taking her place as an institution which was to exert 
a powerful and lasting influeuce upon mankind. 

' Prince John wears hanging sleeves over the close ones of his tunic, 
and he holds in his hand a glove. Another of the princes has upon his 
head a cap, and wears a garment like a surtout, which shows the vest 
underneath. Another sports a hat like some of modern form. 

About the middle of the fourteenth century was a period of great 
extravagance in regard to everything pertaining to the toilette. Gar- 
ments were made brilliant with gold and silver, and such was the 
demand for precious stones, that they became very scarce, andtheiH'ice 
of them advanced materiallj\ Embroidery usually adorned the coU hardi, 
the under-sleeves fitted very closely, while the upper ones were long and 
narrow. Feathers were now first worn on the caps of gentlemen. The 
ladies* bonnets assumed an almost endless variety of forms about this 
time, and for tlie first time since the introduction of variable fashions, 
the female head relied upon the hair, Avithout cap, bonnet, or hood. A 
large curl or i^lait on either side of tbe face, and a small spray of flowers 
or jewels, constituted its only ornament. The trains of the gowns be- 
came very long, and they were held up by pages. 

In England, during the reign of Edward the Third, many new devices 
were introduced, most of which were from foreign lands. The Monk of 
Glastonbury writes, that " the Englishmen haunted so much unto the 
folly of strangers, that every year they changed them in diverse shapes 
and disguisings of clothing, now long, now large, now wide, now strait, 
and every day clothingges new and destitute and divest from all 
honesty of old arraye or good usage ; and another time to short clothes, 
and so strait-waisted with full sleeves, and tapetes of surcoats and 
hodes over-long and large, all so nagged and nib on every side, and all 
so shattered, and all so buttoned, that I with truth shall say, they seem 
more like to tormentors or devils in their clothing and also in their 
shoging [shoeing] and other array, than they seem to be like men.'' 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 11 

In tlie reign of Eichard the Second, great extravagance in dress pre- 
vailed, and most of the novelties of the toilette were drawn from France, 
Italy, Bohemia, Poland, Spain, and Germany. 

During the reign of Elizabeth, pins, ribbons, and knit silk and 
worsted stockings were manufactured in London for the first time. At 
the death of Elizabeth, it is stated that there were three thousand suits 
in her wardrobe. The reigns of James and William and Mary were dis- 
tinguished from that of their predecessor chiefly in the difference in 
coiffures. Enormous hoop-skirts came into wear at this time and 
remained a favorite article of dress until the nineteeuth century, when 
George the Fourth condemned them as cumbersome and inelegant. 

From the early i)art of the nineteenth century, the fashions originating 
in France have generally been adopted with little or no change by the 
English, as well as by nearly all other civilized nations, and this seems 
likely to be the case so long as the French are able to command facilities 
superior to other nations in rapidity and excellence of designs, and to 
retain for a long time the lead in the manufacture of silks and many 
other delicate fabrics. 

CAUSES OF CHAXGES IN FASHIONS. 

It is obvious that aside from love of ever- varying novelties on the part 
of the consumers, there must be the great commercial motive of gain, 
inspiring and impelling the producing classes to call for the acceptance 
of new changes with as short intervals as can be tolerated; and though 
among sensible people of moderate incomes the rule seems to have been 
adopted and followed of restricting purchases to such quantities as will 
last in good condition only until the usual season for the expected change, 
or such material as can be made by alteration to conform to the mode, 
there is a general tendency among the arbiters of fashion to make the 
transition as radical as possible, in order to force a more general demand 
for the new styles. One month we have coat skirts hanging near the 
heels, when suddenly the decree of fashion abridges them to such a de- 
gree that we seem like schoolboys in roundabouts. The same is true as 
to length of waists, fullness or scantiness in the legs of pantaloons, the 
forms of shoes or of hats ; and so, also, in female attire, equally extreme 
and arbitrary changes occur. 

It is natural that the very prosperous group of clothing industries 
should be subject to occasional periods of overgrowth, especially where 
they are centralized as in Paris, gathering into their service too large a 
force of artists, artisans, and operatives. It is natural, also, that all of 
these classes of producers should share in a desire to have as constant 
and profitable occupation as they can obtain. It is noticeable that since 
the general adoption of steam-power conveyance of travelers by land 
and sea, the facilities of intercommunication have vastly increased the 
currents of foreign travel; and thus has the spread of detailed intelligence 
been quickened and made more frequent, and designs of new modes and 



12 PARIS UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION. 

descriptions, samijles of lle^^' materials, emanating eveiy month or two 
from the great centers of fashion, have been scattered likefaUing leaves 
in every laud, and thns the danger of an overstocked labor market is 
lessened, and the hands trained to industry are kept snpple and exjiert. 

Matters of taste being among the highest worldly evidences of the 
degree of civilization of a nation, France is naturally ambitious to main- 
tain the vantage-ground ; and liaving got so far the advance in all the 
preparatory systems of study and training, it is probable that all efforts 
at competition with her in these specialties will prove fntile, until the 
new yonng republic of the West, guided by the experience of the older 
nations, and having established systems of industrial and art education 
and training, combining the best features of all of their prototypes of 
the eastern continent, and having collected in her museums and schools 
reproductions of the art treasures of Europe, shall, in maturer age, de- 
velop, in connection with the material resources of silk, linen, cotton, 
and every useful fiber and fleece, the originality, invention, and enter- 
prise which in other branches of endeavor have become national char- 
acteristics. 

It is doubtless an experience common even to i)ersons of taste and 
refinement, that the impression which the mind receives, whether of ap- 
proval or disaj)i)roval, of some peculiar fashion, depends upon its origin, 
association, uniformity, and succession. A sudden transition, unheralded 
by the journals which lend sanction and authority to every mode, 
however inconsistent with all recpiiremeuts of taste, or opposed to ideas 
of convenience or health, and if imitated by a lady unknown to what are 
considered leading iashiouable circles, would only excite merriment on 
account of its singularity; while if the same change had originated among 
those upon whom the fashionable world had been accustomed to look as 
the legitimate inventors and dispensers of modes, and had been simul- 
taneously ushered in and adopted by those who, being on the alert, and 
possessing wealth, are regarded as leaders of fashion, then, although 
some faint protests and incredulity may be at first exjiressed, the new 
style rapidly gains adherents, and suddenly the invasion is complete. 

From this state of things arises the significance of the phrase in fash- 
ionable parlance of the " air distingue.^'' All modes, however bizarre and 
absurd they may seem at first observation, having once passed through 
this ordeal, become, either suddenly or gradually, invested with the 
quality which that phrase is intended to describe. The gravity with 
which the fair wearers move about, involved in combinations and forms 
which distort or caricature nature's graceful i)roportions, unconscious, 
apparently, of any departure from her laws, leads us to the inquiry 
whether the implicit obedience yielded to the decrees of fashion, without 
appeal to reason and judgment, has not, even in modern times, been too 
much like an abject submission to a despotism which is not devoid of 
mischievous consequences; whether some code of principles cannot be 
established by which the canons of pure taste and the requirements of 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 13 

symmetry in form and harmony of color shall be the first essentials of 
the air distingue^ and that any behest of fashion which ignores these 
shall fall as a dead letter from the moment of its utterance. 

Some of the whims of fashion have been so inopportune as even to 
afiect injuriously the health of myriads of her followers, of both sexes. 

A love of dress, if indulged by a cultivated intelligence without over- 
taxing the pecuniary resources of the individual, far from injuring or 
obscuring any mental qualities, may, by the constant appeal to the 
judgment and taste, especially in woman, tend to develope those quali- 
ties of the mind in the wearer, as well as in that of the producer, which 
exercise a. refining influence upon character. In familiarizing the mind 
extensively with combinations the essentials of whicli are invention, 
grace, harmony of color and design, and elegance of material, texture, 
and workmanship, all of which are to enter into a harmonious combina- 
tion with the most graceful and beautiful of objects, the female form, 
thus presenting an ensemble which shall fulfill the highest demands of 
taste, every kindred esthetic faculty is drawn into activity, and by the 
quickened and refined perceptions, what is discordant, bizarre, and gro- 
tesque in prevailing modes is eliminated and discarded. 

PARIS THE GREAT CENTER OF MODERi^ FASHIONS. 

The establishment of Paris as the central authority and oracle of 
fashion for the civilized world has been by no means the result of acci- 
dent, nor has it been devoid of profound political significance and subtle 
design. 

Owing to the superior means adopted for retaining the ascendency 
early acqnired in matters of design and taste, France has thus far suc- 
cessfully maintained that position, and her experience has proved that 
even much abused fashion is not without its healthful influence on the 
substantial utilitarian progress of mankind. This is easily realized 
when we consider what are the studies essential for qualifying the arti- 
san and laborer to originate and carry out designs fulfilling the require- 
ments of critical taste in all the branches of production which supply 
to the world articles for the adornment as well as the comfort aud health 
of the person, articles for domestic use in dwellings, combining utility 
with the beauty and grace which artistic genius or cultivation can 
impart, articles of vertu and of decorative art, produced chiefly as lux- 
uries for the wealthy, and, finally, works involving a mastery of the 
highest principles of art, such as design, painting, and sculpture. These 
studies, pursued in the best organized methods, with access to the gal- 
leries of paintings and sculpture, and to the best examples of every art 
which appeals to the esthetic sense, inevitably carry the intelligent 
student into wider and wider fields of information, enlarging the opera- 
tion of his mental organization, and expanding his view far beyond 
the narrow limits of the special object of his pursuit. 

The cumulative results of the application of a people to particular 
departments of productive industry, with the powerful co-operation of 



14 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

science and art, is illustrated in the case of France, and slie is confes- 
sedly the leading nation in the respects to which reference has just been 
made. She has elevated the standard of quality in those branches to 
which she has given her energies and her science, and has, by exempli- 
fying the benefits of her system, excited a spirit of emulation among 
the leading nations which will greatly i)romote the i)rogress of all. 

But in another view the apparent frivolities and rapid mutations of 
fashion contribute something real and substantial to the well-being of 
society, if restrained within such reasonable limits that the benefits are 
not counterbalanced by the extravagance or wastefulness which too fre- 
quent changes involve : for they give constant emi)loyment to thous- 
ands of industrious hands, stimulate the inventive faculties and inspire 
the student and savant with new motives for penetratiog more deeply 
into the mysteries of nature, and revealing latent properties and powers, 
which, when called into action, may surpass all preceding discoveries. 
A strildng instance of this character may be mentioned here : 

In the year 185G one of the great chemical discoveries was made 
which from time to time have so signally vindicated the claims of 
science to the first rank as a guiding spirit to productive industry. It 
was the discovery of the aniline colors derived from coal tar, and 
generally classed under the heads of violets, reds, blues, greens, blacks, 
yellows, &c., and giving a variety of beautiful secondary combinations. 
Manufacturers of textile fabrics have thus been furnished with a series 
of colors of the most brilliant and varied hues. 

From the very interesting and instructive report of Mr. John L. 
Hayes on wools, accompanying this series, I take the liberty of making 
the following extract, which sums up the merits of these discoveries in 
a most eloquent and appreciative manner : 

" The use of these colors gives a marked character to the dyed tissues 
of the present age. The great change effected by them was remark- 
ably illustrated at the Exposition by a display of parallel series of 
wools dyed by the ancient and the new aniline processes. The aniline 
hues were predominant in the richly colored fabrics of the Exposition, 
and, adopting the figure of Colbert, that ' color is the soul of tissues, 
without which the body could hardly exist,' we might say that these 
colors fix the psychological character of the fabrics of the present day. 
Among the wonders of modern science, what is stranger than this, that 
the gigantic plants buried in the coal measures of the ancient world are 
made to bloom with all the tints of the primeval flowers upon the tissues 
of modern industry P' 

exhibitio:n^ of costumes. 

SPECIMENS OF POPULAR COSTUIMES. 

Class 92 was devoted to specimens of popular costumes of different 
countries in methodical collections, showing the costumes of both sexes 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 15 

of all ages and those most cliaracteristic of eacli country. This plan 
was realized to a great extent, especially in the Russian, Swedish, and 
Norwegian sections, where, in promenading, the visitor was often startled 
by the life-like figures of peasants and of interior tribes. In the Chilian 
exhibition the costume of the miners of that country was shown in accu- 
rate detail, by the life-size figures standing by the side of the heaps of 
copper and silver ores sent from the mines of the Andes. 

But perhaps the most striking feature of the occasion, disconnected 
with classifications of the Exposition, was the extensive display of cos- 
tumes upon the persons of many of the visitors and some of the attend- 
ants at the various sections. Of the male delegation there were Orientals 
in bright colors and flowing draperies, and people from the Western 
countries in garments of more somber material and more formal cut. 
There were Greeks and barbarians of the European world, and natives 
of the Celestial Empire, and their more flowery Japanese neighbors ; 
and here and there, as strangely picturesque as any, peasants in ante- 
revolutionary costume, still preserved, coming from remote side vil- 
lages of Napoleon's home provinces. 

Most noticeable on the female side were the waiting girls at the differ- 
ent national shops, restaurants, and beer-houses, sharp-eyed for business, 
and ornately decked in the highest style of their quaint local modes. 

HISTORICAL AND FANCY COSTUMES. 

A few choice specimens of historical and fancy costumes for both 
sexes were exhibited by Madame Del phine Baron, one of the eminent 
practitioners in the art of costuming, which is carried to so great per- 
tection in Paris. Its successful practice in the higher grades requires 
no inconsiderable historical study, and calls in play really artistic qual- 
ities. Not unfrequently the dancer at a carnival ball carries on his back 
the work of a distinguished master. 

The costumes in Don Juan d'Autriche, when that play was revived at 
the Theatre Francais a few years ago, were said at the time to be com- 
posed or corrected by Meissonier ; those for Eistori's Medea, when she 
first appeared in Paris, by Ary Scheffer ; those of Sardori's Don Qui- 
xote, and of Oftenbach's buffo opera Ste. Genevieve de Brabant, by Gus- 
tave Dore. The late excellent historian, Bouviere, himself a painter as 
well, in his Faust and Hamlet, followed in pose and apparel the mas- 
terly illustrations of Delacroix much more closely than the translators, 
permitted him to follow the text of Gothe and Shakspeare. 

POPULAR COSTUMES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 

ABSTRACT OF A REVIEW OF CLASS 92.^ 

'^ Costume is sometimes, in its material and form, directly regulated by 
climate, as in the hyperborean regions of Lapland, Siberia, and Finland,. 

> Translated aud condensed from the report of M. Armand-Diiraaresq in the Eapport du Jury Inter- 
national. 



16 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Alaska and Greenland, wliicb are located far from tbe great commercial 
centers. A glance at tbe Ostiaks, Yakouts, and Alentians will sbow 
tbat tbese peoples, dressed in reindeer or otber skins, living among eter- 
nal snows, in grand solitndes, subsisting by bunting, baviiig few wants, 
are satisfied witb wbat we would bardly call tbe necessaries of life. 

Tbougb tbe varieties are very distinct, tbose wbicb are peculiar to 
metropolitan centers are difflcult to classify. Tbe date of tbe origin of 
a costume is easy to ascertain from tbe form of a garment, but wby the 
rustic of Batz bas retained in the nineteenth century tbe dress of the 
time of Louis XIII, elsewhere regarded as a relic of antiquity, we can- 
not tell. It may, ijerbaps, be attributed to his particular calling. When 
tbe salt man entered a village bis arrival was announced by the bells 
or rattles on his mules. Before his fanciful hat and elegant jacket were 
seen, tbe housekeepers ran out to get their supply of salt ; thus tbat 
costume was preserved as a sign. But let us consider those conse- 
quences of these customs which are of most importance to us. 

Manners, customs, and usages are still preserved, and they have a 
mysterious connection with costumes. A girl cannot often make up her 
mind to marry a man not of her village ; gradually a distinct race forms, 
and tbe men remain at home, forming a self-governing colony. We find 
patriotism and love of home most developed in tbose countries where 
the rustic has preserved the costume of his ancestors, and this inces- 
sant and reciprocal supervision insures honesty and unity among tbe 
inhabitants. There is a touching harmony in the existence of those 
people that is sure to strike the eye of an observer. 

Now let us state the distinction between costume and dress. 

Costume is the same for all, for the man or boy, the womau or girl, 
and does not change. It is composed of solid an.d durable material, 
without regard to fitness ; what was once a Sunday costume, soon be- 
comes a working costume; hat, jacket, and pants are often repaired, 
but never undergo a change of form. That is what we call costume. 

Dress belongs to cities. It changes with the whim of the fashion. Every 
part of it has a j)eculiar destination, that is, for show or for work. The 
laborer is not dressed if be is obliged to wear his week-day clothes on 
Sunday. He must have two suits at least. This exi^ense is to make 
him look like his fellows, and to follow the fashion of the wealthy 
classes. Yet, what is fashion ? Merely an invention for worldl}- people 
to know each other by. Ought sensible people who have something to 
do, to be compelled to follow the fashion? In France, as elsewhere, 
fashion is a tj^ant tbat even city work-people consider themselves 
obliged to obey. Though expensive, they wish to get fashionable clothes 
as cheap as possible ; no matter about the material, so long as the style 
is fashionable. In France the laboring man must have a new suit, no 
matter how poor the material ; whereas in England he is satisfied with 
the cast-off lashionable clothing of the better classes, Tlie gaudy gar- 
ments of a fop in Hyde Park serve the dock laborer, and at last the 
unfortunate Irish resident of Saint Martin's Lane. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 17 

• The rustic's choice of something strong, solid, and well made is the best. 
He wants the garment to be of good material, without regard to form, 
for it has to live on him for many years, till it becomes a i)art and parcel 
of himself. The old dress gives the history of the man. 

If a comparison is made between the expenses of the rustic who pays 
dearly for his clothing, and the city laborer who seems to buy cheaper, 
the former will have the advantage in the durability of his material. 

The morals of a people are favorably aflfected by a peculiar costume, 
and the artistic aspect of costume is evident to the least attentive ob- 
server. Wherever we find originality .in men's or women's costumes, 
we like to represent it in jHctures and albums, to be kept with care. 
The inhabitant of the country is more attached to his costume than the 
artist who studies it merely to find an attractive harmony of colors. 

With six hundred costumes for exhibition, it is not surprising that 
there were so many ways of showing them. The lay-figure was, how- 
ever, generally adopted with great success, as by Sweden and I^orway. 
It consisted of an iron frame, stuffed with straw, so as to show all the 
curves of the figure, and vary the movements. The heads and hands, 
giving the type of the country and race, were moulded from nature in 
plaster; the heads were retouched and finished by an artist; the hands 
were nicely made to exhibit every indenture of the cuticle. This method 
was effective, but costly. If we look to the result alone, it was perfect. 
The other lay-figures, such as are used in shops, were far inferior to 
the kind we have just mentioned, and the heads and hands were very 
imperfect. Pasteboard figures were used by the French commission, 
because of their cheapness, and they were generally rudely made in the 
department whence they came. 

Ethnology, connected with the study of costume, is a science much 
cultivated in Europe. Eussia has long had museums of costumes, 
and statuettes of the different people in the empire. Turkey' has 
collected at Constantinople all the ancient costumes of that coun- 
try; so has Sweden, Norway, and Hungary, in their respective centers. 
In many countries costumes are faithfully represented in statuettes 
made of colored clay, baked and dressed, as in Italy, Spain, Portugal, 
India, Malta, and America, Avhere there are excellent specimens. There 
is no science more striking or easier learned ; it is not a labor, but a 
diversion, a pleasure ; hence the success of that part of the Exhibition. 
Crowds always filled the different halls of Class 92, and never failed to 
stop where the use of the articles was understood. The public felt that 
such an exhibition was a study where much could be learned, and the 
visitors sought instruction. 

When costumes are preserved without modification in a country, 
classification is easy to make by cities or nationalities ; but if the cos- 
tume is becoming obsolete, and clothes no longer worn are brought to 
you, the classification becomes difficult; it is impossible to follow a sin- 
gle method ; and this happened at the Exjjosition of 18C7. In France, 
2 c WF 



18 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

particularly, it was necessary to collect costumes of the last century, 
still worn by ver^^ old men ; rare, it is true, but still partially used. 
The classification adopted by the international jury was independent of 
these different systems ; it was dictated by the importance of each lot ; 
and such is the system followed in the succeeding review of the cos- 
tumes on exhibition. 

SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

The royal commissioners of Sweden and Norway furnished seventeen 
groups, of thirtj-two figures, varying by groups. This lot was in the 
first class. All the principal Scandinavian costumes were there repre- 
sented, and at the same time, the different ages, trades, and customs of 
the country, executed under the direction of Mr. Dardel, a distinguished 
artist and superintendent of the fine arts in Sweden, assisted by Mr. 
Soederman, a Swedish sculptor. The lot is artistic and natural in its 
composition 5 it forms a collection of genre pictures, representing "Har- 
vest," " A girl dressing," " The rustic oracle," " The groom's visit," "Ask- 
ing the mother," " The betrothed," " The Laplander in a sled drawn by a 
deer," " Two Lapland women and children," &c. The heads and hands, 
as has been already stated, are very true to nature. This lot may be 
considered as a model of its kind. 

TURKEY. 

The Ottoman government sent a very curious collection of popular 
costumes of different classes of society ; the number was eighty ; here 
are some of the most important: the Zerbek, from the province of 
Smyrna; the Arnaut, Bulgarian, Bosniak, Laz, province of Trebizond; 
Circassian of both sexes ; a man and his wife of Mount Lebanon ; Alba- 
nian, Kurd and his wife ; a Jew of Jerusalem and one of Bethlehem ; a 
man of Damascus and one of Salonica ; a woman of Asia Minor 5 a 
weaver and a cook of Constantinople 5 a Turk citizen, laborer, and shep- 
herd ; a Bulgarian wife ; a man of Djedda, another of Bagdad, and one 
from Mecca. 

These costumes are very varied in form ; many are covered with gold 
embroidery and gaudy braid of all colors. Cloth, velvet, muslin, gauze, 
fur, and morocco, are strangely mingled in their composition. Draw- 
ings would represent them better than any description. Their price is 
low, considering their richness and elegance. It is the Oriental taste in 
extreme sumptuousness. 

GREECE. 

Greece has furnished rich costumes, so covered with gold that the 
cloth is not seen from the profusion of ornaments. The white fusta- 
nelle, a small skirt of a thousand pleats, is the most original part, and 
the leggings as richly embroidered as the jacket. Their elegance is 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 19 

renowued and tbeir form lias become popular — so much so, that we see 
them in pictures everywhere, and they are much used for masquerades. 
The most beautiful of the costumes were exhibited by Andreon and 
Tzenos, both for men and women. The costume of an Athenian rustic 
with his wife, of a new fashion, was sent by Magnissalis ; that of a man 
of the Morea, sent by Zappas, and a costume of ancient Greece, that 
might be taken for that of Phedra, is perfect — tunic, peplum, and sandals, 
all of fine cashmere, embroidered with gold. It was said to be intended 
for wear, though one would not think so from its elegance. The same 
would not be said of the costume of the woman of Psara: the white 
silk turban, the waist of velvet, and the skirt of purple silk, were of the 
common form. 

The Greek cases also contained parts of costumes of different prov- 
inces, varying according to locality, though with a general resemblance. 
They are dresses for daily use, their prices varying from twenty-five to 
two thousand francs. 

RUSSIA. 

Eussia, with so many different peoi)le, might have sent more costumes 
to the Paris Exposition, but for an ethnographical exhibition at ^loscow, 
where there were more than six hundred costumes. In the Exposition 
there were only twenty-seven from Russia, but they were choice, taste- 
ful, and new to many. First among them was an Ostiak costume from 
Northern Siberia, near the mouth of the Obi, covered with furs. The 
man, woman, and children of the group are dressed alike. The fur of the 
skins is on the outside of the garments, as in all cold countries, to make 
them warmer. The bottom of the hood and the hem of the sleeves are 
ornamented with colored pearls from the north of China, making them 
really gorgeous. 

The agricultural commission of Tiflis, Caucasia, sent a Touchine man 
and woman, a Kefsaur man, one Cossack, and two Kurd uniforms. 
They differ from those mentioned above, in ornaments, in brilliancy of 
colors, and solidity of the material, which is manufactured in the coun- 
try. The woman's hair is carefully i)laited ; she has a necklace of coins; 
the men carry splendid arms and wear riding boots, thus indicating the 
tendencies of the Eastern people. 

The Crimea sent but one Tartar man and woman; their dress, very 
tasteful, is loaded with gold embroidery ; the stuff is variegated, of cloth, 
velvet, silk, and muslin. 

It is only necessary to mention the fish-skin costumes of the'Takouts 
and Aleutians, exhibited by Mr. Pavloft", and similar costumes of Lap- 
landers from the grand-duchy of Finland. Russia might give us many 
samples from its tributary lands. It is to be regretted that a Russian 
countryman with his family was not seen, but, as each province has its 
X)eculiar dress, arbitrarily embroidered, it would be hard to find what 
could be called a Russian rustic. To have an idea of their taste we 



20 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

have but to glance at the towels in the Isba, or iu the woolen and linen 
section. Why were not such costumes sent"? Perhaps because common 
things are not appreciated. 

SPAIN. 

Lay figures play a great part iu the presentation of costumes, partic- 
ularly if the costumes are short and narrow, and for that reason those 
sent from Murcia must be praised. They were of carved wood, with 
jointed shoulders 5 real painted statuettes, with enameled eyes. They 
show the dress of the males and females of Murcia to a great advantage; 
and are so elegant that they are readily accejited abroad as the general 
type of the whole country. 

The provincial deputation of Coruua and the institute of San Isidro 
also sent some interesting specimens; but much more was expected 
from a country like Spain. 

EGYPT. 

Egypt had an exhibition of popular costumes, organized by order of 
his highness the Viceroy. The first portion, Class 91, was in cases; 
the second was on lay figures. They represented the farmer, the 
laborer, the negro of Upper Egypt, the Sais Berber, the Arab peddler, 
the Copt woman, the Abyssinian woman and the negress. The manni- 
kius used were made of hard pasteboard, modeled by the sculptor Cor- 
dier. They were very well made, very graceful in their movements, 
represented their types perfectly, and did honor to their author. But 
that was not all that Egypt had to show. Quitting the palace and 
going into the park, might be seen the workmen just as they are at Cairo: 
the barber, the goldsmith, the embroiderer, the rush-mat maker, whose 
bronzed faces and herculean forms made a deep and lasting imi^ression 
on the spectator, and caused him to forget for a moment the costumes 
before him. 

ROUMANIA. 

Moldavia and Wallachia had many costumes; fifteen of the principal 
ones were on figures. They represented the surongio, the postilion of 
Argech, the royal postilion dressed in white cloth covered with red em- 
broidery. The herdsman, the pea-gatherer, the reaper of Arto, the 
Danube fisherman, the mountain hunter, &c., were characteristic cos- 
tumes of the country. Then there were graceful female costumes, em- 
broidered by Madam Odobesco and Madam Zucasiewitz, filling two large 
glazed cases. The bride of Turno was also observed, and portions of 
costume of admirable workmanshij), and of such taste that an innate 
thirst for elegance iu those people is lialpable. 

PRUSSIA. 

The government of Saxe-Altenburg and Mecklenburg-Schwerin had a 
curious collection. The vestments of the bride of Altenheiui were pecu- 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 21 

liar — quite black, the -wreatli and bouquet of variegated flowers, aud 
tlie stocking's red. It seems they avoid white as carefully as it is sought 
in Paris. The husband wears a small Louis XI hat. A protestant pop- 
ulation was discovered in these austere fashions; but what particularly 
attracted attention was the narrow skirt of a woman from the neighbor- 
hood of Erfurth or Gotha; it only reached the knee, and was buttoned 
tight in front; though it impedes walking, the wind can get no hold 
under it. A large number of specimens might have been sent, for the 
costumes of the married women are very different from the girls' dresses. 
This distinction was first enforced by law, and afterward became a cus- 
tom, which has lasted to the present time. 

AUSTRIA. 

Austria, justly celebrated for its elegant Croatian, Servian, Moravian, 
Hungarian, Sclavouian, aud Tyrolian costumes, disappointed many at the 
Exposition. Only partial representations, such as cloaks, pants, caps, 
and belts, and a few specimens on dolls were given. However, the 
costumes were well known, aud have long furnished patterns to dra- 
matic artists and painters. 

THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 

The Argentine Kepublic had three gToups, and the gmiclio was the 
hero in all of them; he was on horseback i^reparing to throw his lasso, 
or had his woman behind him, or was sucking his mate through a silver 
bombilla, held up to him by a girl. His costume aud the caparison of 
his horse had many silver spangles on them, and the whip handle, 
stirrups, bridle bit, and saddle pommel, were covered with silver, in justifi- 
cation of the name of the countrj". 

TUNIS. 

The Bey of Tunis sent a rider and horse in festive caparison, like 
those of the old tournaments ; three Moorish costumes, the more curious 
as they showed the hoiue dress of the Arab woman ; and three male 
dresses, all richly and elegantly embroidered. 

JAPAN. 

Japan exhibited two lots ; one from the Tycoon, the other from Prince 
Satsuma. Though separate, they were very much alike, both represent- 
ing warriors, horsemen, and footmen, loaded down with arms, helmet on 
the head aud shield on the arm. Their faces were hid by masks of hid- 
eous appearance ; their arms were singular and odd in form, so as to 
terrify the enemy. One would thiuk the entire costume was intended 
to frighten, from the fierce aspect it gave to the w^earer. All the arti- 
cles were carefully and elaborately fashioned, showing the skill of 
Jai3anese Avorkmen. 



22 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

DENMARK. 

Denmark bad four handsome country groups, men and women from 
tlie islands of Zealand, Amak, and Iceland, very like tlieir neighbors the 
Swedes. One must belong to that country to discover differences that 
do not strike a stranger. There was, however, a singular detail of cos- 
tume peculiar to them, which was initial letters of gold that the woman 
wears on her belt, her familj'^ name and her husband's combined, a sym- 
bol of fidelity placed near the heart. 

' PORTUGAL. 

Portugal had a male costume from Honras de Miranda, in the province 
of Tras-os-Moutes ; it was brown in color, and was covered with black 
ornaments, with a blue vest. The cloak, with a scooped collar, is gener- 
ally worn at festivals and weddings. The contrast between the jacket 
and vest was odd, but attractive. 

The province of Minho was well represented by a large collection of 
vSmall figures sent from Porto : among them were the farm laborer, the 
fisher, the water carrier, the Valongo and Avintes baker women, the 
fish woman of Espinho, and the embroidress of Braya, the lace-maker of 
the country. 

The costumes of the province of Aluntejo — brown dress, short breeches, 
broad brim hat — and -those of the fine looking i^eople of the Azores ; 
those of Madeira, where we find the embroidress, the shirt-maker, the 
laborer, and the vilon, in his ruffle shirt and i)ointed cap of such a queer 
fashion — were wanting. But what can be said against this omission, 
when the Netherlands, the Pontifical States and Italy, all rich in varied 
costumes still worn, sent nothing ? India sent nothing but a few small 
figures, very pretty indeed; Malta sent two life-size earthen statues, 
that looked as if intended for a garden; England, rich in all other classes 
at the Exposition, did not send her fine Scotch costumes. These ommis- 
sions were much to be regretted. 

FRANCE. 

France had forty-five exhibitors : sixteen had painted studies or designs 
well calculated to illustrate the type, fashion, and manner of dress in 
the provinces. 

Eaphael Jacquemin sent a beautiful work, a colored iconography of 
costumes from the fourth to the nineteenth century. Each plate was 
etched by himself and gave all the details most conscientiously. It is 
a work indispensable to libraries and very usefid to artists. 

The costuDies on lay figures numbered seventy. It was hard work 
to make this collection, yet provincial varieties were far from being- 
complete. 

FiNiSTERE. — Jacob, of Quimper, exhibited country costumes of Brit- 
tany, as men and women of Scaer, a bridal pair from Plouare; the 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 23 

woman dressed in red, like the Eoman Campesine^ and a groom of 
Kerfuntun. These costumes, made on the spot, were richly garnished 
with gold and silver embroidery on silk and woolen; and what was 
most singular, the work was done by men. We can understand how 
proud the Breton is of this costume, and why he wears it yet: it is well 
made and showy, composed of various materials of excellent quality, 
and calculated to last long, a consideration highly estimated by an 
economical and industrious peoj)le.« 

Beside this lot, Mr. Jacob has inaugurated a new industry by appro- 
priating Breton embroidery and trimmings to coats, vests and <jther 
garments used by men and women as traveling suits. It has been a 
benefit to the tailors of Quimper; and its success is proved by the extent 
of the business and the imitators of it that have suddenly sprung up. 

The Loire Inferieure was well represented by a man and a bride from 
Clisse, and by a man and woman of Sailly. These were all the costumes 
exhibited from Brittany. 

PuY DE Dome. — Mr. Foulhouse was commissioned by his department 
to collect the costumes of Auvergne; this he did with the intelligence 
and skill of an artist and archaeologist. There were ten types of the 
principal localities. 

The woman of the Tour d' Auvergne, with her dark woolen head-gear, 
held on by a brass band, goes back to the Celtic period, if we may trust 
tradition, and might have been worn in the time of the Gauls when 
they conquered Alaric, near Latour. The brass fillet may have been 
taken from the head-dress of the conquered as the emblem of triumph, 
and the black stuff as the token of mourning, in commemoration of the 
death of their countrymen who died on the field of battle. A widow in 
that part of the country still wears the black veil, without the band, in 
token of sorrow. 

A man and woman of Chapdes, Beaufort, finished the highland series 
of costumes. All these dresses are of blue woolen, and are made by the 
women ot the country. They iirepare the wool, s^iin it, weave it, aud 
dye it at home. The importation of foreign articles at a cheap rate has 
tended to abolish this domestic manufacture. 

The lower part of Puy-de-Dome, known as Limagne, sent a male and 
female costume of St. Bonnet, near Eiom. The robe is of wool or cot- 
ton, and always of gayer colors than those worn in the highlands. It 
gives the elegant type of the women of Auvergne, whom all travelers in 
that province see dancing the bourree on Sunday evenings. It is very 
similar to the dress in the district of Issoire, where the Sauxillange 
women still wear the tucked skirt, such as we see in Watteau's pictures- 
We also see the common dress of the people of Eiom worn by the por- 
ters at the feast of St. Amble, the patron of the city, with the high- 
crown slouch hat,* as worn by the incroyahles in directory times. It 
was worn in Limagne only forty years ago. 

In the valley of the Dare the vine dressers* lived in common during 



24 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

the last century, and were called the Guitard Finon, from the chief who 
wore a red velvet belt with a silver buckle containing the emblems of 
agriculture, given to him by the king's intendant in the reign of 
Louis XVI. 

The women employed to tend flocks and herds still wear a broad-rim 
straw hat worked with their own hands. This hat is tied over the head 
with a ribbon, and is a j^erfect protection fi'om sun and rain. The 
pleats of their coarse woolen gowns fire formed by the strokes of a mal- 
let, which is one of the necessary instruments of the tailor. 

The section of Puy-de-Dome was finished with a collection of archaeo- 
logical objects connected with the history of costume. The first seen 
was a bundle of distaft's of carved wood, painted by the mountain shep- 
herds. They came from villages near Clermont, and were fashioned 
like those used in the Pyrenees and in Algeria. The next object was a 
Celtic belt, very curious, from the village of Corent, once a walled town 
of Gaul. On the medals connecting the brass links were crosses carved 
by hand to consecrate the articles. Thej" must go back to the time 
when Christianity was introduced into Auvergne by St. Austremoine. 
These chains were used up to the commencement of the present century 
to carry house and trunk-keys on. There were also clasps, buckles, and 
sleeve-buttons of Celtic origin, and these are now imitated in sleeve- 
buttons Avith Vercingitorix's horse stamped on them. The old jewelry 
of Auvergne, that will certainly come into fashion again, must also be 
mentioned. 

Vendee. — La Vendee was portioned into three sections, the woods, 
plain, and sea-coast. The committee went to a great exiiense in the 
exhibition: it sent three genuine costumes, but all tended towards the 
same model except the winter cloak of the St. Gervais fish-women and 
the Avomen's caps, much like those of Rochelle. The men's dress is 
more original ; it is the true type of the old Vendean with his broad hat, 
short coat, and tight breeches; no socks, but straw in his hard, heavy, 
wooden shoes. The costume is not often seen now, but it is very char, 
acteristic. 

The Lower Pyrenees had three specimens from the valley of Ossau; 
the women wore a flounced skirt, high gaiters, and a red hood; two 
herdsmen had red caps; one was knitting as if watching his flocks; the 
other had a lute and flageolet, and he played both at once. 

Ariege. — Baron Bardis sent a male costume from the valley of Oust, 
a man and woman from the valley of Massat, and a woman from the 
valley of Bethmale. These costumes are still worn in the contiguous 
valleys, and the cloth is made in the country. In the snow mountains the 
leg-gaiters leave the knee-joint free, so as not to hinder progress through 
the snow, while they protect the lower leg. Men wear the broad hat 
common to the country, or the cap called the herette. In winter the 
women add a hood to their cloaks to keep their heads warm. 

Lower Ehine. — The «lepartment committee sent a man and woman 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 25 

froin the neigbborliood of Strasbnrg, and two costumes from tlie vicinity 
of Wissemburg; but Alsace might have sent many more. These came 
from a Protestant region, as might have been seen from the woman's 
deep green petticoat and the man's vest of the same color. Catholics 
always wear red. 

Cher. — Berry had also many souvenirs, chiefly from Asnieres-les- 
Bourges, a small village three miles from the capital, where the people 
are Protestants. The manners and customs of that i)art of the country 
have not altered since the edict of Nantes. The old men still wear 
the dress of the time of Louis XIY, and yet they all know how to read 
and write. It is singular they are so attached to the dress of the olden 
time. 

Lower Charente. — Mr. Fournier sent a Eochelle and Marenne 
female costume, with magnificent head-dresses, made of tulle and lace, 
resembling those of La Manche, exhibited by Mr. LeMaillier. They had 
a domestic look to the eye of a stranger, and were very different from 
those of Normandy. The head-dress tells the i)rovince here and it 
becomes a science, but it is unfortunate that we see the Norman bonnet 
now only on the heads of old women, and on Sunday another obsolete 
head-dress, found chiefly in the departments of the Anbe, was called the 
tocca. It might be called a large crown of lace, very pretty and gTaceful 
in form. 

YoNNE. — The departmental committee sent a country costume of 
Avallon, the general type in all the central departments of France, and 
weU known in Paris through the Morvan nurses that have made it pop- 
ular. This coquettish costume requires a good figure to show it. 

The house of Babin furnished several well-made costumes for the 
Exposition ; among the most notable were a girl of Guemene, one of 
Bressanne, and a Corsican laborer. 

We must give a few words to the cases containing the jewels. Most 
of them, as the Norman crosses of General Hecquet and Mr. Singer, are 
of Alengon silex ; they are collars, brooches, and ear-rings of Provence 
and Dauphine. These adornments of the last centiuy have become rare, 
and are only found ill the hands of amateurs. The articles of provincial 
gold jewelry, still sold in remote districts, are qu:'te interesting as curi- 
osities in Paris, and show the difference between what was formerly used, 
and what is now made for fashionable peox)le. We would recommend 
the adoption of these old fashions for the benefit of modern industry. 



CHAPTER II. 

MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING REPRESENTED AT 
THE EXPOSITION. 

Cotton fabrics from France, Great Britain, and other countries — Cotton 
m.tnufacture in the united states — lusten and linen fabrics, enormous con- 
SUMPTION OF, IN France — Various styles of linen goods shown in the French 

SECTION — EeLATIVE IMPORTANCE OP THE LINEN MANUFACTURE IN VARIOUS COUN- 
TRIES — Flax and linen in ItjVly — Manufacture of wool and worsted — The 
British artisans on worsted and mixed textile fabrics — Silk as a material 

FOR CLOTHING — ThE SILK TRADE OF FRANCE — SERICULTURE IN FRANCE — GENERAL 
observations upon the silk INT)USTRY of VARIOUS COUNTRIES — RiBBONS. 

COTTON FABEICS. 

lu tlie present age, cotton fabrics being the cheapest and most univer- 
sally used materials entering into the production of clothing, are natur- 
ally the most important to the largest mass of consumers. 

France, being very properly ambitious to have every department of 
her wonderfid industrial interests well represented in an exposition pro- 
jected and carried out in her great metropolis, surj)assed all other coun- 
tries in completeness of exhibition in this department. For the same 
grade of goods made by other nations, the French, as a general rule, use 
a better quality of cotton, and twist their yarn more evenly and with a 
harder twist than other manufacturers. 

In all grades of shirtings, fine cottons, calicoes, lawns, and muslins, 
the French maintain an acknowledged ascendency. Their exports of 
these goods for the five years ending with 1865 were as follows : 18G0, 
$13,920,000 ; 18G1, $11,280,000 ; 1862, $12,660,000 ; 1863, $17,610,000 ; 
1861, $18,740,000; 1865,18,700,000; and 6,250,000 spindles furnish the 
yarns from which these fabrics are woven. 

It appears that, from some cause or other, many leading staple ^^ of the 
cotton manufacture of Great Britain were not represented. But the 
capacity of British manufacturers to meet the requirements of the world 
at large is attested by the facts that she exports of yarns over $5 J,O0U,000 
worth, of calicoes over $115,000,000, other printed goods, $80,000,000, 
and of sewing cotton upward of $3,000,000— in all a value of $-;48,000,000 ; 
yet none of these branches of the trade were represented to any extent 
in the Exposition. 

Our own manufacturers in this department of industry declined to 
appear ; a case of sewing-cotton from the Clark Thread Company being 
the only article exhibited in the class of manufactured cottons. 

The Oriental nations, with the exception of Persia, were scarcely rep- 
resented. Persia contributed, after the date at which they should have 



28 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

beeu received, some veiy rich fabrics, among which were some printed 
goods in the traditional style of the country. 

Italy, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Wiu"- 
temberg, Baden, Prussia, and North Germany, Belgium, and the Nether- 
lands, were all more or less extensively present in the examxjles of this 
class, and generally with credit to themselves. 

The manufacture of cotton goods is the most prominent feature of 
the textile industry in Wurtemberg. This branch has been developed 
mainly within the past fifteen years, and supports twenty-one establish- 
ments engaged in cotton-spinning, employing about 245,000 spindles, 
and 3,550 hands; consuming 5,60J,000 kilogrammes of raw material, val- 
ued at 83,222,013 84. 

COTTON MANUFACTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The very comprehensive report of my colleague. Commissioner Nourse, 
renders the presentation in this place of statistics of the cotton sujiply 
and manufacture of the United States superfluous. It will be sufficient 
to direct attention to the fact that the country did not make that display 
of cotton manufactures which justice to this important industry required ; 
and also to the fact that notwithstanding the great Increase of jDroduc- 
tion of all kinds of cotton goods, the demand is not supplied. 

The average annual value of foreign cotton manufactures imported, 
from 1821 to 1839, inclusive, was $10,624,087; and from 1840 to 185G, in- 
clusive, $10,795,418; the yearly exportation for the same period aver- 
aging only $909,114. From 1854 to 1856, the average annual imports 
amounted to $28,811,966. These values, during the later periods, con- 
sisted largely of piece goods from Great Britain. Of plain white British 
calicoes alone our importations increased from 10,000,000 of yards in 
1846 to 85,000,000 in 1850, and of printed or dyed calicoes, from 13,500,000 
yards in the former to 97,000,000 yards in the latter year; and in 1860 we 
received from that country altogether 226,776,939 yards of cottons ; but 
in the first two years of the late civil war, 1861 and 1862, this importa- 
tion creased to 74,680,537 and 97,375,709 yards, respectively. 

This industry, so vast and important to this country, and which de- 
served so prom iient a place at the Exposition of 1867, was practically 
unrepresented there. It is not, however, to be inferred from this omis- 
sion to appear in the greatest of industrial competitions, that the Amer- 
ican manufacturers lack confidence in their ability to compete in the 
quality of those classes of cotton goods which form the great staple fab- 
rics demanded by the masses of mankind ; but a vague impression that 
the relative cost of i^roduction was to be taken into account in deciding 
upon the question of comparative merit, seems to have influenced them 
in withholding their fabrics. 

The very general and earnest efforts which have been and are being 
made by the government and manufacturers of the United States to 
ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes by the payment of 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 



29 



liberal wages, the reductiou of the hours of labor, aucl the diffusion 
among them of all "means tending to their elevation and moral, social, 
and intellectual improvemeut, render it impossible, and it is considered 
undesirable, for American manufacturers to comx^ete with those of foreign 
countries in the cheapness of manual labor. 

It is to be regretted, however, that they did not present a complete 
exhibition of this class of goods, had it only been for the benefit of such 
criticism as competent and faithful experts would have made, as well as 
for the eclat which they might have shared with some of oiu' woolen 
manufacturers in bearing off' golden rewards of success. 

The number of gold medals awarded in this branch was twenty-six ; 
of which, France received fifteen ; Great Britain, five ; Switzerland and 
Belgium, two each ; Austria and Prussia, one each. 

Of one hundred and thirty-seven silver medals, France took seventy- 
five ; Switzerland, thirteen ; Austria and Prussia, twelve each ; Belgium, 
seven ; Eussia, six ; Great Britain, five ; Saxony, Holland, and the 
United States, two each; Spain, one. The bronze medals being distrib- 
uted in about the same proportion. 

The countries represented, and the number of exhibitors from each, 
in Class 27, Grou^j VI, being cotton yarns and fabrics, are as follows : 



Country. 



France 

Algeria 

Holland 

Belgium 

Prussia 

Hesse 

Bavaria 

Wurtemberg. 

Austria 

Switzerland.. 

Spain 

Portugal 

Greece 



2 ? 



228 
12 
15 
69 
47 
1 
2 
11 
36 
55 
14 



Country. 



Denmark 

Sweden 

Norway 

Italy 

Turkey 

Egypt 

Tunis 

China 

Loo Clioo 

Morocco 

United States 

Great Britain / 

British colonies and depehdeucies . 



■/• 



lehd 



\^ a 



1 

7 
2 

47 
198 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
4 

31 
4 



LINEN AND LINEN FABRICS. 

Naturally succeeding cotton comes linen, the production of which was 
\asibly stimulated during the civil war in the United States by the sud- 
den and protracted interruption of the supply of cotton. The results of 
this stimulation were manifest in the linen exhibits of .the Exposition. 
France devoted a larger space to this than to any other single industry, 
in her section of the building, as did also Belgium and Prussia. It was 
stated in a report to the Chamber of Commerce of Belfast, Ireland, by a 
deputation sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, that the aunual con- 
sumption of linens in France then amounted to two hundred and fifty 



30 



PARIS UNrV'ERSAL EXPOSITION. 



million yards — a larger quantity than is used in any other country — and 
French statistics show that on the 1st of January, 1866, there were in 
that country two hundred and twenty-six linen mills, containing 70.~),350 
spindles.^and that in the Dei)artement du Xord there were 4,30.j power- 
looms ; since which they have been increased, so that in all France there 
cannot be less than 8,000 X)Ower-looms engaged in weaving linen. Added 
to the supply from this source, an importation was reported for 1866 of 
3,800,000 pounds of yarn, and 3,500,000 of linen. Among the prin- 
cipal styles of linen fabrics for clothing purposes exhibited in the French 
section are the various tyi)es used in the naval and military services, in 
which, as well as in hospitals and prisons, the French adopt the use of 
linen instead of cotton. Then come blouse linens, blue, drab, and slate- 
colored, and of A'arious shades. These with French fancy drills, which 
are largely exported, light linens, and linen handkerchiefs, from the 
Cholet district, and damasks, were the most notable varieties exhibited. 
Belgium. Prussia, Xorth Germany, and Austria were represented in a 
manner sho-^ing tliat this industry is well maintained among them ; but 
Great Britain established a claim to undisputed pre-eminence. Her ex- 
ports of manufactured linen for six years preceding 1867 were, for 1861, 
over 817.060,000; for 1862, 822,000,000; for 1863, 829,330.000, and up- 
ward; 1861, over 837,525,000; 1865, 811,220,000, and upward; 1866, 
814,125.000. 



EXTENT OF THE LIXEN INTDUSTRY IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 

The follovsing table, indicating the number of spindles in activity and 
in construction at the commencement of the year 1865, gives an idea of 
the relative importance of the linen manufacture of each of the principal 
countries engaged in that industry : 



Coon try. 



In activity. 



In construc- 
tion. 



Total. 



Great Britain . 

France 

Belgiom 

Knssia 



Xorth America. 

Austria 

Prussia 

Saxony 

Bararia 

"Wurtemberg . . . 

Total 



,263,000 

563,025 

135,000 

75,000 

80,000 

210,000 

151,000 

15,000 

6,200 

4.000 



195,638 

60,000 

60,000 

19,000 

20,000 

116, 500 

24,500 

6,000 

1,000 



1, 460, 63S 

6-J3. 025 

195,000 

94,000 

100, 000 

327,300 

175, 500 

21,000 

7,200 

4.000 



2. 505, 025 



3. 007. 663 



Ireland produces very good rpialities for the .spinning of medium num- 
bers. Kussia exports considerable (piantities, principally from Eiga. 
Her linens are pliant and easily worked, but they never bleach to a per- 
fect white. Thev serve for the coarser numbers only. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 



31 



Algeria lias entered successfully upou the culture of flax. The progress 
in this culture which she has made under the benign guidance of science 
as perpetuated in the mother country, is illustrated by the fact that the 
specimens which she exhibited in 1855 were not adapted to the produc- 
tion of finer yarns than English Xo. 25, (17 millimetres, French,) 
while those in the Exposition of 18G7 were perfectly capable of pro- 
ducing threads of No. 100. 

In France, linen fabrics are manufactured principally in the Departe- 
ment du Kord, Picardie, the environs of Bernay, and in the Pays de Caux. 
The linens of this last district as those of Picardie are of inferior quality. 
Those of Bernay and du Nord, although superior, do not equal in quality 
the linen of the Lys, (Belgian,) that are gathered in the environs of 
Courtray, and which are all of highest grade. The environs of Gaud, 
Lockeren, and Maliues, furnish also linen fiber of a quality perfectly 
adapted to yarns or threads of fine numbers. 

The annexed tabular statement shows the magnitude of the linen 
industry of Belgium from the years 1855 to 1864 : 



Tear. 



1855. 
1856 

1857, 
1853, 
1859 
I860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 



Importation. 



Exportation. 



Quantities. Value. Quantities. Value. 



Kilos. 

12, 464 
10, 000 
13, 190 

13, 858 
16, 884 

15, 593 

10, 714 

11, 879 

16, 353 
19, 285 



Francs. 
175, 000 
167, 000 
303, 000 
364, 000 
320, 000 
329, 000 
334, 000 
548, 000 
594, 000 
819, 000 



Kilos. 

2, 762, 587 

3, 485, 024 
3, 549, 901 

3, 418, 752 
3,381,423 

4, 230, 458 
4, 495, 007 
4, 412, 859 
4, 228, 528 
4, 243, 602 



•ancs. 
467, 000 
832, 000 
165, 000 
704, 000 
396, 000 
741, 000 
261, 000 
132, 000 
097, 000 
061, 000 



FLAX AND LINEN GOODS IN ITALY. 

The production of flax in the kingdom of Italy is estimated to be about 
135,000 metric quintals,^ that of hemp about 500,000 metric quintals, in 
all 635,000 metric quintals. The i^rincipal varieties cultivated are the 
ordinary hemp, the Chinese hemp, and giant hemp; the stalks of this 
last variety sometimes attain a height of five metres, (sixteen feet.) 

This product forms quite an important item in Italian commerce; the 
imports and exports for the years 1862, 1863, 1861, and 1865, averaged 
respectively 16,956 metric quintals, valued at 1,600,000 francs, and 
157,033 metric quintals, valued at 15,321,000 francs. Three-quarters of 
the exports go to Austria, principally in a raw state. During the three 
years 1863, 1861, and 1865, the imports of hemp made into cordage 
averaged 11,130 metric quintals, valued at 878,000 francs, while the 



' The quintal = 100 kilogrammes, or 220.46 pounds. 



32 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

exports for the same period averaged 15,356 metric quintals, valued at 
1,058 francs. 

The spinning of flax and hemp is still generally done by hand, there 
being but few factories in which power is used. There are, however, three 
in Lombardy, having in aU 14,120 spindles and giving employment to 
> 980 persons, of whom 245 are men, and 735 women and children. 

The wages for the women and children vary from twenty-five to forty- 
five centimes per day ; that of the men from one franc thirty-two cen- 
times to two francs per day. 

The quantity of flax and hemp which is consumed in these establish- 
ments is 12,500 metric quintals, from which is produced 9,000 metric 
quintals of all qualities. To the work which is done in the factories 
must be added the work done with hand looms by 300,000 peasants, who 
are employed in spinning one hundred and fifty days during the year. 
Their average earnings are fifteen centimes a day, and the whole 
amount paid annually for this work is 6,330,000 francs. 

The city of Bologna possesses two factories capable of producing 5,000 
metric quintals of thread per annum. 

The amount of hemp and flax spun in Italy is not sufficient to supply 
the home consumption. The greater part of this material is exported in 
a raw state, and returns in the form of thread, having been spun in the 
great factories of England and France. The average exports and im- 
ports of thread for the years 1862, 1803, 1804, and 1805 are as follows: Ex- 
ports, 3,042 metric quintals, value<l at 789,000 francs: Imports, 29,575 me- 
tric quintals, valued at 7,772,000 francs. Inweaving linen there are em- 
ployed 120,000 looms and 171,000 workmen. The entire production may 
be valued at 00,000,000 francs per annum. There are many factories es- 
tablished in Piedmont, in Lombardy, and in the southern provinces, but 
in the country there are local manufactures wliich supply the home 
consumption. 

The fine linen used in Italy is almost all imported. The importations 
from France and England have increased of late years to a great extent, 
while the exports have fallen ofl" proportionately; the average imports 
for three years, from 1863 to 1865, inclusive, being 14,924 metric quintals, 
valued at 8,287,000 francs, against 5,066 metric quintals, valued at 
2,0*97,000 francs, exported during the same period. 

MANUFACTUEES OF WOOL AXD WORSTED. 

In an economic point of view, and as a branch in which the national taste, 
skill, and thoroughness of workmanship were brought to the test, this 
feature of the Exposition was not surpassed. France and Eugland vied 
with each other in presenting to the admiration of the world series of 
tissues of great beauty and utility for female wear, such as double meri- 
noes, i)oi)lins, beaded stuffs, figured and fancy goods, material uiade 
from the wool of the Angora goat, printed merinoes or cashmeres, and 
de laiues, heavy Orleans cloth and alpaca, mixed goods made from fine 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 33 

organzine with silk warp, and weft of mohair, the last named being 
exhibited only by the French. It is a gratifying fact that although the 
United States were not represented in these fabrics, her eDter])rising 
manufacturers are gradually entering the same field and that her stock- 
raisers are paying more and more attention to the growth and improve- 
ment of wools, so that we are in a fair way, at no distant day, to com- 
pete handsomely with Bradford and Rubaix, the respective centers of 
these Industries in England and France. The latest and most valuable 
information on the woolen industries may be found in the report of Mr. 
John L. Hayes already referred to. 

Austria, Prussia, and Saxony displayed a more limited range of simi- 
lar fabrics, so also did Eussia and Belgium, all of which received high 
commendation. 

As in the spinning of flax, France shows in the production of the fine 
yarns necessary for all-wool goods and wool and silk goods the qualities 
which give to her fabrics woven therefrom their undisputed superiority. 
England, however, excels in her mixed fabrics, from a similar superior 
practice in preparing the yarns from long wool, which requires processes 
of treatment differing radically from those for spinning carded wool. 

Another quite distinct branch, namely, that of carded wool and woolen 
fabrics, upon which wearing apparel of both sexes is largely dependent, 
remains to be noticed, before we reach the more delicate and luxurious 
materials. Here again we are filled with admiration of the beauty and 
variety of the French representation. The complete system of indus- 
trial education will, no doubt, account for the thorough skillfulness of 
manipulation in spinning and weaving, as it does for the taste and 
fertility of design displayed in French fabrics. In figured coatings, Mos- 
cow beavers, sable furs, and Witneys, France verifies the importance of 
this system of education and her velvet piles and naps of wool and 
Astrakhans for ladies' mantles are unrivalled. France exhibits also the 
novel combinations of velvet cloth adorned with glass, steel, and gold 
beads, and brass shavings, and cloth made from felted yarns, which are 
beautifully soft and elastic and not dear in price; and makes a very 
excellent display of fine cloths and beautiful examj)les of fine fancy 
trouserings, worthy of the soiuxe of their i^roduction. Prussia, Austria^ 
Holland and Belgium, Eussia, Italy, and Turkey, all figure respectably in 
the same line, and in some qualities attain preeminence: for instance, 
Belgium for heavy overcoatings, such as ribbed cloths, reversible beav- 
ers, Moscows, deer and doe skins, and other ribbed cloths ; Austria for 
the brightness and clearness of dyes, and original and tasteful patterns. 

The strong point in British woolens is the superior qualitj^ of superfine 
broadcloths, cassimeres, doeskins, and beavers, which especially are 
unsurpassed. 

Huddersfield, one of the greatest centers of production, exhibits coat- 
ings, trouserings, vestings, mohairs, imitation skin rugs, and velvet piles, 
of moderate cost, yet excellent in quality. Scotland sent a varied col- 
3 G w F 



34 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

lection of trouserings, shawls, and the soft, beautiful and durable fabrics 
for wbicb she is celebrated ; and Ireland some good tweeds, freezes, and 
trouserings. 

WORSTED AND SnXED TEXTILE FABRICS. 

The following is an extract from the report made by Daniel Illingworth, 
of Bradford, England, one of the British artisans, and published by the 
Society of Arts : 

"After talcing a general survey of the exhibition, we began looking at 
the Bradford goods. We found various makes, including lastings, cam- 
lets, cords, a few Coburgs, Orleans, various stripes and mottled fabrics 5 
nothing made for the special purpose of show, but goods taken from our 
present stocks. Similar goods can be seen in our ma'rket at any time. 
They are made from cotton, wool, and silk. 

" In looking over the fabrics of continental manufacturers, the French, 
I must say, are superior to any other, both in quality and dye. No com- 
parison can, however, be fairly instituted between goods made of all 
wool, wool and silk, and goods made of mixed wool and cotton. 

" We were told in France that we could not dye meriuoes ; that when they 
sent them in the gray to England, they had to be sent back to Paris to 
dye and finish. Their merino weft and warps are carded and spun with- 
out oil, to which is attributed the deficiency of our shades ; but if we 
cannot dye the French goods, which are without oil, our dyers must find 
some other excuse. 

"In looking over the French goods in the all-wool, wool and silk, the 
merinoes are particularly good. The reps made of all-wool, wool and 
silk, are beautiful. They have also the plain poplin, all-wool, which is 
also good ; of these they have an enormous and most varied display. No 
prices were affixed to the French goods in this class, but from the fine- 
ness of the quality they must be very costly. They are goods that will 
not be extensively made in England. The competition is so pressing 
that we are obliged to make a cheap article. 

- "The collective show of Eoubaix was good. Upon inquiry we found 
that they had been made expressly for show, regardless of expense. 
This contains goods similar to the Bradford manufactures in mixtures of 
cotton, wool, and silk fobrics, but nothing new in design. 

"Messrs. Delattre, sr. & Co. had a first-class show of merinoes, poplins, 
reps, and mottled fabrics, which had been made regardless of cost and 
of superior material to any that I saw afterwards in the working i^rocess. 

"The goods shown from Eoubaix are superior to ours in quality. 

" On visiting Eoubaix we encountered much difficulty in gaining admit- 
tance to the ijlaces of business ; and where we were allowed to see the comb- 
ing, drawing and spinning, we were not allowed to see the weaving; and 
only in oue instance did we succeed in doing so, but in that we found 
nothing to learn. In Eoubaix we found some of the lowest classes of 
wool in process, and spun into weft. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 35 

" We next went to the manufacturing town of Rbeims, wliere we were 
well received. We visited several firms in the town and district. There 
are made poplins, reps, and cashmeres and merinoes, the last named being 
the principal manufacture. We visited the firm of Danphinot and 
Brothers, who have a good show in the exhibition of reiis, cashmeres, 
poplins, yarns, tops, wool, &c., but merinoes are their principal make at 
present. The woolen warp is spun in single threads, on caps; then it is 
taken and twisted two-fold on a roving bobbin, from which it is warped 
onto a beam to form one sixth of the warp ; then it runs from the six 
beams onto one, and as it runs from the six beams it passes through a size 
of glue and water. When it comes out of the size every end is separated 
and dried with two fans before it reaches the beam, and all this is man- 
aged by one girl. There are no dressers, no warping mills, and very 
little labor attending the process. This method of sizing and beaming 
is nothing new; it is similar to the cotton process. 

"There are both one and two-loom tenters; but as far as we could see 
and learn, quality is more sought after than quantity. We noticed a first- 
rate machine for finishing or cleaning knots from the face of merinoes 
and other fabrics. By this machine the suj)erfluous ends, «&c., are 
shaven off, and at the same time the ground is raised, by which process 
a richer ai^pearance is given to the cloth. This machine is in the form 
of two going parts of a loom, and works the same way. The ])ieces pass 
over the surface of the going part, where a peculiar knife is fixed, which 
takes off all the fibers. A great number of women are also employed to 
clean the jjieces, and every care is taken to make them as perfect as pos- 
sible. In one piece room were fifty, and in another twenty-five, of those 
women employed. If an end was out it was sewn in, and all ends or 
fibers cut from the edges and superfluities of every kind cleared off. 

" We visited the firm of Messrs. Seydoux, Sieber & Co., Le Catiau. 
This is the largest firm in France. We noticed their case in the exhi- 
bition. It consisted of reps, poplins, cashmeres, and merinoes ; a really 
first-class show. 

"We noticed a very good case from Prussia, of goods similar to our 
own. 

" With regard to machinery, we found it very difficult to gain 
admittance to the French department. At last, however, we succeeded, 
and on examining the looms we did not find anything to learn. There 
was the plain and drop box loom, but nothing new, and none equal to 
the Yorkshire looms for the Yorkshire trade. We consider it unneces- 
sary to dilate upon the excellence of our looms. 

" In the Exhibition we were indebted to Messrs. Larsonnier Brothers 
& Company for the opportunity of examining several cases of French 
goods. They very kindly opened, not only their own case, but others 
for our inspection, and also gave us samples. 

"There are few goods exhibited by the continental manufacturers for 
the use of the middle and working classes. The Bradford goods are 



36 PAEIS UNIA^ERSAL EXPOSITION. 

most suitable and substantial; and the surprising- clieapuess of these 
fabrics it is hoped will attract the attention of our foreign merchants 
in this class, and obtain from them a due appreciation, and stimulate a 
demand for our goods." 

SILK AS A MATEEIAL FOE CLOTHmG. 

The opportunity presented at this Exposition for the study of the 
production and the products of silk, was probably the best ever offered 
to the world 5 for the competing exhibitors in the French section, rely- 
ing on their ability to keep in advance of all rivals in a manufacture so 
entirely dependent upon individual skill, which may be regarded with 
them as an accumulated heritage descending from one generation to 
another, eagerly revealed, in compliance with the requirements of the 
Imperial Commission, all the methods and processes of their industry. 

To no country, in its bearing on national industry, wealth, and taste, is 
the subject of more urgent moment than to the United States, and the 
opportunity has been well improved by my able colleague Elliot C. 
Cowdin, esq., of New York, who has so exhaustively discussed the 
subject of the production and treatment of the raw material, as to leave 
scarcely anything to be said on this branch of the svibject. 

Tlje rich stores, in the French section, of silk materials are many of 
them marvels of beauty in color and design. Though the newly dis- 
covered colors now extracted from coal tar and oil, known as aniline 
colors, have done much in this direction, the artistic taste and feeling 
developed by the admirable system of technical or industrial art educa- 
tion, which, as before intimated, lies at the basis of French pre-eminence 
in the fabrication of articles of elegance or luxuiy admitting of the 
application of design, has done still more. 

In sillc, which has such a remarkable capacity for receiving colors, 
and at the same time retaining its sparkling freshness and power of 
reflecting light, the knowledge of design and of the proprieties of color 
is even more important than texture and quality of material. 

Artistic designing is itself an imj^ortant industry in Paris, and is 
liberally consulted by the manufacturers, who thereby maintain novelty 
and excellence in their tissues, shawls, brocades, ribbons, and embroid- 
eries. 

Lyons and St. fitienne were shown, by their specimens at the Exposi- 
tion, to be the seats of highest development in the silk manufacture. 
This was demonstrated by the collective exhibition of the Association 
des Tisseurs de Lyons, and the superb tapestry or damask silk contrib- 
uted by Messrs. Pillet-Meauze et Fils, (102,) as well as that of Messrs. 
Methevon and Bouvard, (148,) of regal richness; by the specimen of 
taffeta brocaded silk with lace patterns enriched by garlands of 
flowers, and also a taffeta silk with velvet representing birds, flowers, 
and feathers, imitating nature so cunningly as almost to deceive the eye. 

Some impression of the beauty of design attained in the manufacture 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 37 

of woven silk may be derived from illustrations, but they can give no 
idea of the crisp fresh gloss and play of light aud shade, nor of any of 
the delicate qualities which make silk what it is when the highest work- 
manship, skill, aud taste have been bestowed on its production. 

The relative position of Great Britain to the other silk manufacturing 
nations, was not perhaps justly presented at the Exhibition, but the 
most favorable exposition of her products in that line would leave her 
far behind Prance. Moire antiques, Irish poplius, black crape, and plain 
and glace silks of good quality each in their grade, illustrate the general 
tendency of British manufacturers to supply the substantial fabrics of 
established quality generally demanded by the great mass of consumers, 
leaving" the French to supply the more ornate and elaborate varieties 
called for by the classes who lavish wealth in keeping pace with the 
fleeting fancies of fashion. One very rich material of the kind known 
as tissue de cenx, for furniture aud curtains, reflected credit upon the 
exhibitors, Messrs. Grant and Gask, of London. It was brilliant with 
fine spun glass, which is getting to be much used in decorative tissues. 
The great London Exhibition of 18G2, at which the English displayed 
marked progress over her former exhibitions in silk manufacture, as well 
in design as in other qualities, seems to have stimulated France to 
renewed vigor and originality, while the subsidence of the English 
would convey the idea that they had formerly made, by a si^asmodic 
effort, exceptional specimens for the purpose of carrying off the prizes. 
Professor Leoni Levi, L.L.D., in his able and instructive report upon 
the silk manufactures at the Exposition to the British government, gives 
the following statistical information upon this subject: 

" Within the last twenty-five years there has been a great oscillation 
in the imports of raw silk. In 1840 the imports amounted to 3,759,000 
pounds; from that time they increased enormously, till in 18G0 they 
reached 9,200,000 pounds. But afterwards there was a considerable 
decrease, and in 18G7 they were not more than 5,800,000 pounds." He 
then shows that the disease in silkworms caused a great competition in 
the purchase of China and India unmanufactured silk, causing a rise of 
from eighty to one hundred per cent., and that in an industry where the 
raw material enters so largelj^ in the total value, such a rise left but 
little surplus either for labor or cajjital." 

He further observes : 

" Following the unsatisfactory condition of the raw material, the 
exports of British silk have suffered gTeatly. In 1810, when Sir Eobert 
Peel reduced the duty on silk manufactures from thirty per cent., as it 
was left by Mr. Huskisson, to fifteen per cent., the value of exports 
amounted to no more than £608,000. From that time it increased regu- 
larly, till in 1856 the value amounted to £1,758,000. Soon after, the 
disease in silkworms appeared, prices rose, and the cheaper descriptions 
of silk became dearer in proportion than similar articles in wool or 
other materials. 



38 



PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 



" Then, too, in 18G0 America, our chief market, became tlie prey of a 
fearful civil war, aud the exports fell in 18G1 to £1,395,000, ami from 
that time they farther fell to £1,028,000 iu 1867.' Even the six months 
ending July, 1807, showed a considerable diminution as compared with 
the similar x)eriod iu 1860. To a certain extent the check to the pros- 
perity of the manufacturer has been as mnch felt in Lyons as in Spital- 
fields and JMauchester; but wliile Enghind did not get the better of it, 
France did. Of ribbons, for instance, in 1851 the export from France 
amonnted to £1,200,000; in 1855 they rose to £-1,700,000; and in 1861 
fell to £1,800,000; but they have since recovered to £3,500,000 in 1866. 

''•The silk trade of France, as a whole, exhibits a very dili'erent 
progress from that of England as regards the exports of silk manufac- 
ture. When the two are placed side by side the comparison is very 
striking: 



Year. 


Exports from 
Eiiglaml. 


Increase per 
ceut. 


Exports from 
Fi-ance. 


Increase per 
ceut. 


1851 


£1,130,000 
1, 082, 000 
1, 395, 000 

1, 318, 000 




£7, 350, 000 
9, 650, 000 
11.560,000 

1, 850, 000 




1855 


4 
23 
Decrease.. 

5 


31 


1861 


20 


1866 


63 







" The difference between France and England from 1851 to 1855, aud 
from 1861 to 1866, is very notable. 

" What, however, alarms the British manufacturer is the fact, that 
while the exi>orts of British manufacture decreased, the imports of 
French and other foreign manufactures have greatly increased. In 1855 
the real value of foreign silk manufacture imported was only £1,800,000. 
In 1860 it was £2,800,000 ; and in 1807, £8,000,000. There is nothing 
surprising in the fact of such increase, the diminution or abolition of 
import duty being always followed by a larger trade, by Avhicli the com- 
munity at large is benefited. Only in this case the natural result was 
more sudden, from the fact that just when we opened our i)orts, the 
American markets being closed, a large j)ortion of French and German 
silk, which would otherwise have been sent thither, found its way to 
this country. 

"From these accumulated evils the manufacturer in this country has 
been jilaced under no ordinary straits and dififlculty, and there is no 
doubt that thereby the ability of England to compete Avith France in 
certain descriptions of silk manufacture has been greatl}' put to the 
test." 

SERICULTUllE IX FRAXCE.i 

Sericulture is not so prosperous as it was in 1855, on account of the 
silk-worm disease. Although it has long been known, its disasters 

1 Extract (trauslation) from the report of Jules Raimbert, of the International Jury. 
Rapxiorts dii Jury luteruational, tome qnatrieme, ]). 162. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 39 

ill France begau after the Exx)osition of 1855 and spread over all silk- 
produciug countries. For eighteen years, every remedy has been tried 
in vain to arrest its ravages. 

The silk crop in France, previous to the epidemic of 1840-48, was 
estimated at twenty millions of kilogrammes of cocoons, worth, at the 
average of five francs, one hundred millions of francs. At that time 
one ounce of eggs yielded thirty kilos of cocoons, and seven hundred 
thousand ounces of eggs were required for France. 

Now more than a million ounces of eggs are put to hatch, to allow for 
losses, and they only yield an average of ten million kilos of cocoons, 
bringing fifty-eight millions of francs. This is a loss of forty-two mil- 
lions ; and it is more evident if Ave compare the quantity of raw silk 
formerly produced, and that produced now. Then, the quantity 
produced was nearly two million kilos, costing seventy-two francs the 
kilo; the yield now is not over six hundred thousand kilos, but the 
price has arisen to one hundred and twelve francs. Thus, silk is from 
sixty to one hundred per cent, dearer than formerly, and its production 
has diminished two-thirds. To su^jply this deficiency, silk is imported. 

At the time of the Paris Exposition of 1855, domestic silk was used 
to the quantity of eighty per cent. Lyons and St. !fitienne were the two 
centers of the flourishing manufactures. 

At the time of the London Fair of 1862, the silk crisis was at its 
height, and silkworm eggs were brought from Caucasia and the lower 
Danube to supply the business in western Europe. In 1865, such was 
the scarcity in France, that seventy-five per cent, of silk was imported •, 
and in 1867, when the Exposition opened, the silk industry was in a 
desperate condition. 

Subsequent to 1862 another important event had occurred : the early 
cocoons of Europe had died out and fresh eggs had to be brought from 
the East, chiefly from Japan. The cocoons of that country are of an 
inferior quality, and are often double. They are yellow, white, green, 
gray, and generally smaller than cmrs, thus making their manipulation 
more difficult. A good spinner formerly made three hundred and forty 
grammes a day 5 now she hardly makes two' hundred. 

SPINNING AND MILLING. 

The position of the silk spinners was becoming critical, from priva- 
tions of sources of former jirosperity, and contention with unknown 
rivals; and milling suffered from the same causes. The quality of the 
raw silk became inferior, and its winding difticult; its manufacture 
became more expensive, on account of the working classes of the coun- 
try flocking into the towns. From 1862 to 1867, the cost of labor rose 
as much as twenty per cent. 

But in spite of the bad material and against all difficulties, we are 
proud to say that France is still at the head of the silk-producing coun- 
tries. The spinners and millers of Ardeche, Drome, and Yaucluse form 



40 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

a pbalaax unrivaled for the manufacture of organzines, plush, and satin. 
The number of these factories is about the same as in 18G2 ; for we 
found the same houses exhibiting at the late Exposition that exhibited 
at the London Exhibition in 18G2. 

The spinneries of the Cevennes keep up their reputation for their silks. 
They have had to contend with Japan, that shows many elegant speci- 
mens in cases, such as green silk, which is now taking the place of white 
and yellow. What was injurious to the spinners of pure silk, j^roved 
beneficial to those that worked the tow and refuse of silk. Owing 
to the high price of silk, that industry has increased considerably in 
France, Switzerland, Italy, and England, particularly for three-ply cord. 

Considerable improvements have been made in the preparation of 
this material, before combing and in the subsequent manipulation of it ; 
and they have raised the price of tow, which is now used for many 
articles that used to be made of pure silk. Paris and Mmes furnish the 
best specimens of sewing silk, and silk used for embroidery and fringes. 
In spite of the obstacles that scarcity of the raw material has thrown 
in the way of this industry, it has prospered. 

Winding has also improved by now furnishing skeins of regular size 
and quantity. Specimens were first exhibited in 1855, but now skeins 
are made very large for the use of sewing machines, that have come 
into use since that time. 

The scarcity, and, as a natural consequence, the dearness of all sorts 
of silk, have given a real importance to that kind called (louppions, once 
used in ordinary fabrics only, but now made up by many Paris houses, 
some of which make it a specialty. 

The little business of winding, spooling, and balling silk, has reached 
an importance through machines that ha\'e cheapened the processes, 
once so tediously performed by hand. 

Though outside of our line, we cannot refrain from mentioning the 
improvements made by the dyers of Paris and Lyons. Tbe chemists 
and dyers of those cities have made discoveries of new coloring materi- 
als, called aniline, fuchsine, &c., that have produced wonderful effects. 
The exJiibitors of those cities had i)urple, violet, blue, and green silks at 
the Paris Exposition, unequaled by any colors heretofore displayed at 
fairs. Twenty years ago, the French blue and black silks were the most 
admired as fixed colors. 

The production of silk has not succeeded well in our African colony, 
Algeria ; many cocoons and a few tissues were sent to the Exposition ; 
there was but one specimen, however, that could compare with the silk 
of Lyons. 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE SILK INDUSTRY OF VARIOUS 

COUNTRIES. 

In glancing at the silks sent by difierent countries to the Exposition, 
we can study the character of the people that produce them without 
going to their homes to see them. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 41 

At the first Expositions the rival efforts seemed to try to show that 
all kinds of tissues could be produced, but such stufl's could not be 
f^euerally looked on as articles of commerce. National pride was 
satisfied, but the manufacturers were not remunerated for their ingenuity 
and apparent disinterestedness, and they afterwards adopted more 
utilitarian views, in more precise accordance with their interests. 

Eecent commercial treaties between diftereut European nations have 
established a sort of industrial equilibrium that regulates the nature 
and importance of the productions of each country; and now, instead 
of trying to carry on all industries in the same country, it is thought 
better to leave neighbors unmolested in the business in which they 
excel, and have no rivalry in trade. 

In reference to silk, this new condition of affairs, not obstructing the 
production of certain articles for home consumption, seems to concen- 
trate the fabrication of fancy silks in France; of velvet, in Prussia; of 
lighter stuffs, in Switzerland. 

These results, which must have been foreseen by the commercial 
treaties, will injure those industries of each country that owed their 
prosperity to protection; but the surer consequence will be, to place the 
productions of each country within reach of all the others, and thus to 
create, by a sort of reciprocal dependence, a solidarity of interest, which 
will be a certain pledge of cordial relations and a continuation of i^ros- 
perity. 

EIBBONS.i 

According to recent statistics, the ribbon industry amounts to two 
hundred and fifty millions of francs in all Europe. Out of this sum, 
France manufactures one hundred and fifteen millions' worth of ribbons, 
and then come England, Switzerland, Prussia and Austria. During 
prosperous years, this amount has been exceeded ; but it has not been 
the case in late years. 

In France the manufacture of ribbons of pure silk, or mixed, began, 
about the eleventh century, at Saint diamond, whence it extended to 
Saint fitienne, where it is now carried on most extensively. When the 
bar loom was imported, and later the Jacquard machine was adopted, 
the business took a rapid start. 

Saint iStienue was once famous for its manufactories of wooden ware, 
fire-arms and hardware; and when workmen were wanted to make the 
new looms and silk machinery, they were found ready on the spot. 

Eibbon-weaving was found so profitable, that the capital amassed in 
other business in that part of the country was soon invested in it, and 
the ribbon manufacture increased tenfold. This beginning explains 
why labor at Saint Etienne is distributed among families, instead of 
being confined in factories, or monopolized by rich houses. This state 

1 Extract, trausluted, from the report by M. Girodon, of the luteruatioual Jury, vol. IV. 



42 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

of tilings will certainly' cliange in time; bat it cannot cliauge so much 
as other kinds of manufactures, because of the peculiarity of the ribbon 
business. 

Two Ivinds of ribbon are made here, the fancy ribbon and the common 
ribbon. The latter employs three-fourths of the labor, and supports a 
large ]iovtion of the population. Since large factories have been estab- 
lished elsewhere, the manufacturers of Saint Iiltienne have been obliged 
to exert themselves to keep up their merited reputation. 

The fancy ribbon manufacture requires an infinity of designs that 
must be made by hand; for, machinery, perfect as it may be, cannot 
bend itself to all the variety of hand-weaving in ribbons. The variations 
and changes in these looms are effected by the weavers themselves, who 
must be workmen of skill and taste. 

As the workmen are interested in the success of their machinery and 
its luoduct, the work is alwaj^s of a superior kind. Stimulated by 
personal interest, they are constantly improving their business, and 
perfecting tlie mode of operation : they all want to become inventors. 

It is singular that no invention or improvement has been discovered 
by a professional mechanic or engineer; all the discoveries are due to 
operatives or workingmen. Hence the success of emulation, which is 
the prosperity of Saint fitienne. The most intelligent operatives see 
the possibility of rising; they see that one-third of the manufactories 
of Saint Etienne belong to men who were former overseers; and they 
know that most of the rich men began iu the same waj'. In fact, it is 
very easy to become a manufacturer at Saint fitienne ; it does not require 
a big house nor much capital. The looms and tools belong to the 
operatives ; it only requires two or three looms to entitle a person to a 
license to begin business. The success of the beginner depends on his 
invention of some fancy article that will take. Expectation is often 
deceived ; but the places of those who are dissappointed and leave are 
soon filled by neAvcomers, and the competition continues. This explains 
the reason why we see so many new names at ever}' Exposition. 

There are more than two hundred establishments at Saint ifitienne 
engaged in the manufacture and sale of ribbons. For many years the 
business has reached near one hundred thousand francs per annum. 

The saying of Colbert, that taste is the essence of trade, is particularly 
applicable to the ribbon business, and is especially exemplified at Saint 
I^tienne. Division ollabor is nowhere so well arranged as there. 

Paris is the chief market for fancy ribbons; but they are sent to 
foreign countries from there, and get the name of French or Paris ribbons. 
But England and the United States buy their ribbons directly from 
Saint fitienne. 

Previous to 18(30 the ribbon manufacture took an unhealthy flight; 
but since that year it has subsided into reasonable limits. The Ameri- 
can war and the silk- worm disease were the causes of depression in the 
business since 18G0; and then the small hats for women and the substi- 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 43 

tution of plain for fancy ribbons, and lace and fringes for both, did much 
harm to the ribbon industry. 

Since 18G2 the business has been stationary, and there seems to be a 
tendency to condense labor into large factories. By the invention of 
new machinery called compensators, Chinese silk is worked to advantage. 

It is not only important for ribbons to be smooth, but the}" must be 
brilliant, and that brings dj^ers into important use. This branch of the 
business is reduced to a fine art at Saint fitienne. Besides furnishing 
coloring for material used at home, these artists dye for the Lyons man- 
ufacturers that used to send their silks to Saint Chamond. The twenty- 
nine steam-dyeing establishments at Saint Etienne give work to more 
than one thousand i)ersons. 

In 1812 a school of design was founded at Saint ^fitienne, and it has 
educated the skilled artists that have kept up the prosperity of the 
idace. Independent of the different day-schools of design, decoration, and 
painting, there is now a night-school, where more than one hundred 
pupils assemble every night to learn arts that will be useful to them the 
next day. 

In the department of the Loire, there are twenty-four thousand persons 
employed in the ribbon mauufacture, not counting the o^^eratives that 
work in large factories. The twenty-four exhibitors at the Exposition 
had every variety of ribbon ; fancy, plain, fringed, velvet, laced, net, meshed 
for cravats, elastic, &c. Several houses make elastic tissues for drawers, 
garters, and other uses. The gum is brought from England, where it is 
prepared in large quantities, and its use is extending in France. 

KIBBOX MANUFACTURE IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN FRANCE. 

At the London Fair of 1862, Coventry, England, was represented by 
nine manufacturers of ribbons. Only three sent their samples from 
England to the exhibition of 1867. The si)ecimens were ordinary, and 
seemed to be intended for commerce alone. There was no velvet ribbon 
among them. In 1862 there were elegant broad ribbons, with worked 
flowers, gothic letters, and other ornaments, neatly executed; but at the 
Exposition we have nothing of the kind. AVhat became of them % The 
English seem to want initiative taste in artistic composition. They can 
copy French designs, but invent nothing; yet, the solidity of their fabrics 
commends them to certain buyers. 

The factories at Coventry are increasing in importance, and the pro- 
duce is all consumed at home. 

The factories at Basle, Switzerland, are quite different from those of 
Saint Etienne. At the latter i)lace, a small number of producers had 
democratized the business; at Basle, it is in the hands of wealthy man- 
ufacturers. There are only twenty-six manufacturers in that city, and 
sixteen exhibited at Paris. The collection was arranged with admirable 
taste, so as to catch the light in the most effective manner. The manu- 
facturers there are more of merchants than artists, so they make i^lain 



44 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

ribbons that find a ready sale anywhere. We are certain they made 
nothing expressly for the fair. There are between six and seven thon- 
sand looms at Basle, and they are all confined to well-made, low-priced, 
salable ribbons. 

All varieties are collected in a single case. The principal style is the 
taffeta ribbon, of various breadths, and of every qnality. There were 
plain and glazed ribbons, black and bine belts, and many other articles 
for which Basle is famed. The bnsiness at Basle is estimated at thirty 
or thirty-five millions. The city deserves credit for having kept np the 
business against such killing competition. 

In 1834 Basle exported only ten millions in ribbons. The business 
has sin(!e increased three-fold, though the number of looms has not 
increased in the same proportion. The machinery has been greatly 
improved, and the work shows the advantage of perfect machiiu^ry in 
any business. With this increase of iiroduction, wages have remained 
stationary. 

Basle ribbons find their way all over the world. The plainest and 
most substantial find a ready sale in England and America. 

At former international fairs we were astonished at the sluggishness 
of the manufacturers on the banks of the Ehine in taking i)art in the 
industrial tournaments of the world; and we were still more astonished 
in 18G7 to see only four Prussian exhibitors in the palace of the Champ 
de Mars. This seems the more strange, inasmuch as the prosperity of 
those ribbon factories is known to the whole world. 

Besides five thousand looms for velvet ribbons, and many luuulreds 
of hand looms for the same, there are more than ten thousand English 
looms used in Prussia for making colored velvet ribbons. Their sale is 
good at all times, and the business amounts to forty or forty-five millions. 

In addition to these, there are about on€ thousand bar looms for plain 
ribbons, black and colored taffetas, and pure or mixed silk. Prussia 
also produces a large quantity of lacings, braids, and mixed gold cord. 
Since the last treaty of commerce, most of these articles are exported 
to the United States, England, and France. 

Austria was represented at the Exposition by six ribbon manufacturers; 
but we are not to judge of Vienna by what we see at the Exposition ; we 
must look into the past. It is plain that the work of the articles on exhi- 
bition is rude, and the designs are evidently from France. 

The dress of Vienna ladies is remarkable for neatness and taste, and 
the men dress with elegance and care; these elegant habits certainly 
have an influence on the manufacture of ribbons in that country; but 
the manufacturers need boldness in design and innovating enterprise. 

Austria does not export much in the way of ribbons; fancy ribbons 
are imported from France; taffetas and black velvet from Prussia; but 
these importations are diminishing daily, on account of imijrovement in 
the domestic manufacture. 

There are supposed to be from one thousand eight hundred to two 
thousand ribbon looms at work in Vienna and in the neighborhood. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE INDUSTRY OF READY-MADE CLOTHING. 

The artistic exckllence of wearixg apparel produced in Paris— Statistics 

OF THE MANUFACTURE IN FRANCE — ReADY-MADE CLOTHING FOR WOMEN — TlIE 

seamstresses' art IN Paris — The manufacture of hats for men and women — 
Cork hats — Centers of the hat trade in France, and statistics of the manu- 
facture — Boots and srioES — Manufacture of clothing in the United States — 
Head-dresses for ladies — Artificial flowers. 

To no other general exhibition of industry could this feature of wear- 
ing apparel be so peculiarly suitable as to one held in the French 
metropolis, the fertile mother city of the world's fashions. The branches 
of trade centering in the general production of wearing apparel are 
among the most important specialties of Paris in an economical point of 
view. The aggregate value of their yearly products is estimated by the 
hundred of millions of francs ; they furnish a large item of exportation 
for foreign commerce. As a general rule, her exhibitors easily surpassed 
all competitors from abroad; and where these last successfully sustained 
comparison, they oftenest only furnished a tribute to the taste and skill 
of French men and women who have emigrated to the workshops of 
foreign employers. This statement is especially applicable to all articles 
of female attire, from under garments to the patent elegancies of skirt 
and corsage; from the neatest of foot-gear and gloves of proverbial fit- 
ness to the fanciful hat. 

An attemi)t to explain the remote causes of this French superiority 
would be most instructive. It is of no modern date. It was practically 
admitted by our English ancestors, five centuries ago. King Edward, 
returning from French conquests, brought home conquering French 
fashions in his baggage train, which, subsequently, and more than once, 
stirred Chaucer's satiric humor. The subject is not an altogether trivial 
one, and justifies a passing indication of some of the more immediate 
and apparent causes of the admitted excellence of Parisian taste in the 
matter of dress; an excellence, it should be first observed, that is not 
confined to any one social class, and that is common to wearers and 
makers of apparel ; who act and re-act on each other with mutual 
instruction, as do intelligent actors and audience. This taste seems 
innate, and innate it doubtless is, at least to the extent that any sense 
or faculty exercised from generation to generation becomes an hereditary 
aptitude. The numerous public galleries, the yearly exhibition of French 
painting and sculpture, the finer of the public monuments, and the shop 
windows in the streets, are so many free schools for the constant, uncon- 
scious education of the Parisian's sense of form and color. They are 
born appreciative, and become critical unawares. Besides these, and 



46 PARIS UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION 

more directly productive of practical results, there are special schools of 
design, with reference to its ai)i)lication to the useful arts, supported or 
encouraged by government aid and voluntary subscriptions, among 
"which evening classes exert a conspicuous influence, gratuitous instruc- 
tion being there given to artisans both in the theoretical principles of 
beauty and their practical application. The result is that the worker 
brings not onl^- exi)ert manipulation and a practiced eye, but some 
capacity of original design and independent judgment to the work in 
hand, and crowns its completion with that indescribable quality that 
gives the masterpiece its cachet de distinction. The French style of 
artiste apjilied to milliners and mantua-makers is hardly an abuse of 
language; their profession, if not strictly within the domain of flue art, 
borders close on its outskirts. Their chief and best enconrag-ement, as 
must always be the case where art in any kind flourishes, is from an 
appreciating public ; at the present epoch they have a high and gener- 
ous patron in the person of the Empress. This gracious lady is not only 
a flnished connoisseur and zealous amateur, ever readj^ to duly reward 
the ingenious devices of otiiers, but on more than one occasion has con- 
tributed felicitous inventions of her own, originating modes whose 
imperial sway has ruled willing subjects in all the ball-rooms of the world. 
Throughout the temperate zone the outbreak of new styles is a nearly 
simultaneous phenomenon. They are deliberated over and their publi- 
cation is resolved on, in solemn secret conclave held by the heads of 
certain houses. To their correspondents in the principal foreign cities 
they forward drawings, illustrative colored plates, and specimen models, 
in advance of the season, so that they can be issued at the same open- 
ing day for example in New York and San Francisco. Besides its flrst 
value of rarity, which belongs to anything that requires so much power 
of invention, a bold and seasonable novelty promises very considerable 
pecuniary proflt to its originator and flrst introducers. 

EEADY-MADE CLOTHING. 

Of wearing apparel for men the variety was not very remarkable. 
Each nation, for the most part, produces its own supply in this kind ; 
and the competition is rather local than international. In the designs 
of stuffs, Paris held well its own, but for other qualities the London 
goods were preferable. 

As the flrst of these cities maintains unquestioned the flrst rank for 
women's attire, so the second for men's, conscious of its right, would 
laugh at the falsity of a report denying its supremacy'. Each, however, 
borrows something from the other — the French gaining rather the most 
by the exchange. For heavy garments especially, they of late years 
follow the English in shapes and names, omitting only a little of the 
original amplitude, adding only a little native grace of farm. The two 
capitals supply the models, which are adopted in other countries, subject 
to the trifling modiflcations of local tastes and wants. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 47 

The principal exhibitors of ready-made clothiug were French, Belgian, 
and Austrian. The contributions of the latter were noteworthy for 
their meritorious combination of form and finish with cheapness. Among 
the curiosities which, though not unknown in America, attracted much 
observation here, was a seamless coat. It was first molded while the 
material was in a pulpy state, and afterward pressed into a consistency 
that is said to be favorable to long wear. For army purposes, and where 
large quantities need to be furnished in the briefest time, the process 
may have its uses; bat it is not sufficiently perfected as yet to be of any 
general advantage. Army clothing was mostly of a very indifferent 
quality. The defect was the more striking from contrast with snugly 
fitting brilliant uniforms, of which plentiful specimens were constantly to 
be seen at the Exhibition, worn by the military visitors of all nations 
and grades. 

Under the head of costuming should be placed a good part of the 
childrens' dresses, multiform, many-colored, and "of most excellent 
fancy." Their bright tints and pretty quaintness of cut, not inappro- 
priate to the fresh cheeks and mobile vivacity of youth, offered happy 
solutions of the grave problem how to distinguish the mother's attire 
from her daughter's. 

In made-up clothing for both sexes, France, as in most other classes 
of the Exposition, was the principal exhibitor. The committee of 
admission in this class, for France, collected some very important statistics, 
a brief resume of which may be interesting. 

The trade in ready-made clothing, finding its central market in Paris, 
is quite extensive. The cheaper classes of articles are principally pro- 
duced in the provinces. Several of the larger houses have their chief 
workshops in the departments of the north, Pas-de-Calais, Gironde, Gard, 
&c. Much of this work, which was formerly done by hand, is now done 
by sewing machines, to an extent which is truly astonishing, the greater 
part of the seams being sewed in this way. The cost of labor on clothing 
for men amounts to about one-fifth of the value of the goods. The 
workmen employed by the tailors are of two divisions, those who prepare 
and cut out work, and those who put it together. Five-sixths of the 
tailors work at home, the other sixth being employed in the tailors' 
work-rooms. There are about one-half as many women engaged in this 
trade in Paris as there are men. Working either by the day or the 
piece, the men earn from three to six francs^ per day, though some 
expert hands gain from eight to ten francs per day. The women earn 
from two francs to three francs fifty centimes per day, and a few from 
five to six francs. The tailors generally do their own cutting out, but 
the dealers in ready-made goods employ cutters. 

The exportation is generally done through the instrumentality of 
agents. There is great difficulty in estimating accurately the production 
of men's garments; but the tailors and clothiers of Paris do business to 

^ A fruuc is equal to uiueteeu tiud three-tenths cents in coin. 



48 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

tlie amoniit of more tban one linndred and fifty millions of francs per 
annum, the exports amounting to about one- tenth of the whole. Great 
progress has been made in the extent of the business since 1855. Many 
foreign governments look to French clothiers for the equipment of their 
trooi)S, a branch of the business which has been very active. 

THE TAILOES IN PAEIS.^ 

At the end of the seventeenth century the journeyman tailor, boarded 
by his master, earned about fifty cents a mouth, equivalent to ten francs 
of our present money. At the end of the eighteenth century the journey- 
man working on his own account earned one franc seventy-five centimes 
a day. In 1825, under the restoration, he earned from two to three francs 
a day ; in 1850, under the empire, from three to three and a half francs a 
day; and in 1807, from four to seven francs daily. 

Such was the progress of wages for labor. 

Next the sewing machine came to the assistance of the working 
classes, and it was truly a Godsend to them. 

Since the adoption of the sewing machine in 1854, wages have 
increased at least thirty ])er cent. As it lessens manual labor, thus econo- 
mizing physical force, and makes more in less time, it is undoubtedly a 
benefit to the workman. A man who is able to buy a machine gains 
from twenty to thirty per cent., and a woman, from thirty to forty i3er 
cent, on their wages. 

The tailor has marked advantages over the workmen of other trades: 
if he is intelligent, active, and iudastrious, he can soon become master ; 
if orderly and economical, he can get work by the piece; and then 
gradually acquire a profitable custom. We have numberless examjjles 
of this in the many tailors that have made a name and a fortune from 
small beginnings. 

We will now proceed to give the advancement in this indujstry during 
the last twenty years. In 1827 there were but three hundred and twen- 
ty-two tailors in Paris, and only one of them exported his manufactures; 
and they were made to peddle, and gave no credit to French-made goods. 
At that period exportation was restricted, and goods of this kind were 
not generally sent abroad. We have nothing definite about their export- 
ation till 1849. In that year, the export amounted to forty millions; 
in 1866 it was sixty millions. We have already mentioned that the 
cutters, or tailors i^roper, were injured by their indifference toward the 
makers and wholesale manufacturers. The result of the latter business, 
in 1849, was twenty-five millions ; in 1866 it was one hundred and nine 
millions. 

Two incidents have happened to aid tailors — commercial treaties have 
opened foreign commerce to them, and railways have brought foreign 
customers to them in Paris. These visitors have carried fashionable 

' Extracts translated from the report of M. Auguste Dusatoy, Vol. IV of the Rajiiiort 
dii Jurv luternational. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 49 

clotlies away with them, giving a fixed reputation to Paris fashions and 
a good and permanent custom to Paris tailors. 

In the statistical reports of 18G0 we find six houses doing business 
to the amount of one million of francs; in 1866 we find six doing a 
business of twelve millions. In 1866 we find seventeen hundred 
licensed tailors doing a business of two hundred and five millions of 
francs. Their materials were wool, silk, linen, cotton, and fringe and 
buttons, at a cost of one hundred and seven millions. The labor cost 
98 millions, making a total of two hundred and five millions, as stated. 

We find in 1866 thirty -four thousand men and eight thousand women 
working at home or in shops. Dividing the earnings of their labor among 
them, we have four francs sixty-five centimes as the average for men, 
and two francs thirty centimes the average gains for women. 

Thus we see a sensible increase of wages for working men and women 
in the last six years. But we must observe that out of this two hun- 
dred and five millions, nine millions were for military clothing. 

The following is a substance of the observations made by Mr. E. Sin- 
clair, tailor, published in the British Artisans' Eeports. 

"After my arrival at the Paris Exposition I saw a great display of 
cloths, with but little tailoring from any country exhibiting. * * * 
with a total want of military work, which is much to be regretted, as it 
is the most difficult part of our trade. ****** 

"English tailoring was from two London houses, and consisted of a 
few uniform tunics wretchedly made and no way fit to cross the Channel, 
and a few garments, anything but well made for a West End firm, mostly 
for sporting purposes. 

"In the French department, the tailoring was larger than in the Eng- 
lish, without style or workmanship to recommend it, and cloth to match, 
supplied by slop and export houses. 

"Both in France and England the slop- worker is in a wretched condi- 
tion, who supplies this export work, and yet the profits accrning to these 
houses are enormous. 

"The Austrian tailoring sent to the Exhibition was by far the best, 
and certainly was the best I ever saw (civilian work) for style, cut, and 
workmanship, and taste displayed to give effect; it could not be sur- 
passed by any firm in Europe. This work was sent by J. Rothberger, 
Vienna. 

"In the American department, there were a few garments badly made, 
army and navy clothing, chiefly made by machine, and I expect they 
were only sent to show the uniforms of the United States. 

" The French tailors in Paris are more than outnumbered by foreign 
workmen, including Germans, who are very numerous; Alsatians, whom 
the French class as foreigners; Italians; a few Spanish; Belgians, called 
Flamands in Paris; Dutch; Swiss; with a goodly sprinkling of Rus- 
sians, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. But the French workman in 
Paris is a better workman than the larger bulk of this stock of foreigaers, 
4 c w F 



50 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

most of the latter being youug aud residiug iu France for two objects, 
to learn the language and imijrove themselves in workmanshij)." * * 

CLERICAL ROBES. 

There was nothing in all this J^xhibition more complicated, and rich, 
and gorgeous with embroidery aud colors and barbaric gold, tlian the 
clerical raiment. The old Gaul of ten centuries ago had ,two principal 
articles of clothing. One of them , as it grew longer under Italian culture, 
took the longer and more mentionable name of i)antaloon; The other 
was a species of shirt, and named casnla, the diminutive of casa, a house; 
it was his cottage, cot, or coat. This same casula is, almost without 
change, the modern French workman's blouse; and from it came also 
the magnificent cliasnhles. The manufacture of official church garments 
is a special and considerable business; but beside the offerings of pro- 
fessional fabricants, some of the most elaborate, and, in their kind, 
beautiful specimens of ecclesiastical apparel on exhibition, were the 
painstaking works of love, wrought by the hands of devout women. 

READY-MADE CLOTHING FOR WOMEN. 

The trade in ready-made clothing in France is chieily confined to the 
'■'magasins de nouveautes^'' or dry-goods shops, where ladies' ready- 
made clothing is a staple portion of the stock. This is, of course, 
generally somewhat cheaper than that made to order and less elaborate 
in workmanship, but often rivals the latter for quality of material and 
elegance of forms. The most striking display of ladies' goods in the 
Exhibition was of this second class, aud formed an exception to the gen- 
eral rule, being remarkable for thoroughness and finish of make. We 
refer to the dresses exhibited by Euout & Co., who, iu their most 
charming i)atterus, were honored with the co-operation of the Empress 
Eugenie. An embroidered trimming in pansies deserves particular 
mention for its beautiful effects of harmony or of brilliancy, according 
as it was applied to a taffetas silk of a color corresponding or contrasting 
with the leading tint of the flowers. The most noticeable characteristics 
of the singularly rich and varied show of ball-tlresses were the beauty 
of the patterns, which were mainly floral, lightness of tissues, and 
fullness of drapery. Even iu their stillness they suggested floatingi;^ 
mazy motion. The finest two in their kind, whose "loveliness" excited 
the ejaculatory enthusiasm of female spectators, came from the work- 
shop, one might almost term it studio, of Opiger Gagelin. It is one 
of the most famous in Paris, and its graduates may be found in all 
quarters of the city. Its importance may be guessed from the fact that 
it turns out no fewer than four hundred model dresses annually that 
serve as the studies from which nearly all the periodical fashion-plates 
are prepared. 

The Comi3agme Lyonnaise and the vast Magasin du Lou^^e both made 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 51 

large displays; the first remarkable for extremely luxurious articles and 
costly fabrics; the latter, for its complete assortment of ornamental 
articles of female attire. Three magnificently embroidered mantles in 
the cases of the last-named house drew great attention, rather, however, 
as curiosities of ingenious and painstaking labor, than for originality 
or beauty of design. Equally elaborate and more eccentric was a white- 
satin dress, exposed by M. Bouillett, embroidered en chenille, with 
immense peacock feathers, most exactly rendering the natural colors 
and form and texture to the eye; a grand spreading imi^erial robe 
worthy of a Juno for its wearer. An opera-cloak in the same case was 
composed of swan's down covered with butterfly wings. 

The probabilities are that these eccentricities of manufacture, if they 
ever come to human wear, will be borne on foreign, or, at least, provin- 
cial shoulders. With the Parisian the toilette is a composition in which 
not only the material, shape, and tint of each item of apparel, but the 
figure, features, and complexion of the individual are to be combined in 
subordination to that admirable whole, a well-dressed woman. She 
gives her mind to it. She devoutly holds to that dogma laid down by. 
a serious preceptive writer on the subject: " Une toilette est toute une 
science;'" and to that other maxim pleasantly amended and pieced out 
from Buffon: "ie style, c^est Vliomme et surtout la femme." Her apparel 
bespeaks herself; it is the "make-up'' of her person. She dresses in 
character. 

For the manufacture of ladies' clothing Paris is the greatest center, 
and in it is consumed an immense quantity of material of every grade 
of quality and price from the most ordinary i)rinted cottons to velvet o.f 
the highest cost. For articles of summer wear the light fabrics of 
Eoubaix, Elbeuf, Sedan, and Rheims, French merinoes and Scotch 
cashmeres, are principally used. For the trimming of ladies' clothing 
pUlow and machine-made lace, also that of Paris and St. I^tienne, and 
guipures and gimps from Lyons, are employed. The stuffs, cut or uncut, 
are given to dressmakers, or ladies' tailors, who employ from four to 
forty workwomen, besides those who work at home. The articles are 
generally sewn together by hand, the trimmings being added by the 
use of sewing machines. Outer clothing for the use of females is made 
almost entirely by women, and the sewing machines are generally 
operated by women. The average earnings of men at this trade are 
five francs a day; of women, about half that rate. A very considerable 
portion of female wearing ai^parel is exported, principally to England, 
Russia, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Turkey, North and South 
America, and Australia. The articles chiefly exported are paletots, 
talmas, pelisses, mantelets, embroidered shawls, scarfs, and jackets. 
Dresses, hoods, and children's clothing also enter into the export trade. 
These articles are furnished to the small jirovincial linen-drapers and 
commission merchants, while the principal linen-drapers in Paris and 
the provinces generally buy the i)atterns and have the articles made ux) 



62 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

for tliein selves. The value of these articles produced annually in all 
France is estimated at one hundred millions of francs, or nearly twenty 
millions of dollars in our coin. Five- sixths of the whole are used in 
France, the exports being only one-sixth. 

THE SEAMSTKESSES' AET IN PAEIS.^ 

In estimating the progress of the seamstresses' art by their number at 
different periods, it has not advanced like some other industries. Thus, 
in 1780, the independent seamstresses numbered two thousand; in 1819, 
they were two thousand five hundred ; and in 1SG7, only four thousand. 
We do not think their number has sensibly increased since 1860, but the 
business, then estimated at nineteen millions of francs, has more than 
doubled. The fourteen thousand sewing girls employed by the four thou 
sand mistresses, with a business of forty millions, earn from two and one- 
half to three francs a day. 

The trade in ready-made clothing for women did not actually begin 
till 1815. Before that time a few houses made Crispins, spencers, and 
mantelets ; but as they were sold at retail by a few fancy stores, or were 
sent abroad or into the country as models, they did not constitute a 
branch of commerce. Since our commercial treaties have opened the 
world to us, the industry has continued to increase until it has become 
an important branch of our commerce. 

Articles of women's dress were once excluded from exhibition; but, 
in 1807, the industry was elegantly represented at the Exposition. We 
judge of this by the number of distinguished persons that crowded round 
the show-cases, by the considerable business produced by the models 
exposed, and by the approbation of knowing persons, that declared no 
country would compete with France in the line of women's garments. 

As no other nation exhibited samples of women's clothing ,we must con- 
fine our judgment to the French articles, regretting, however, that we 
have no foreign samples for sake of comparison. 

After 1840, many establishments for the special manufacture of women's 
clothing were instituted; one of them does business to the amount 
of three millions of francs annually, and several others manufacture more 
than one million's worth per annum. Besides these many fancy stores 
have special departments for the sale of women's garments, and do a 
very good business in that line. 

Many ready-made dresses are sent abroad as samjjles to all parts of 
the world to avoid the prohibitory tariff on ready-made clothing, which 
exists in many countries; in Spain, for exami^le. In Portugal our ready- 
made clothing has to pay a duty of eighty per cent.; and in many other 
countries a duty of fifty or seventy-five per cent. 

If the government would revise our commercial treaties and open 
foreign countries to our fabrics, the business in Paris would take a new 

1 Extract translated from the report of M. Dusatoy, of the luternatioual Jury, Vol. IV 
of the Jury Reports. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 53 

fligiit upwards. The business of women's clothing amounted to fifty-five 
millions of francs in 1867; the laay was twenty-five or thirty per cent., 
and the number of seamstresses employed was about seventeen thousand. 

In the general statistics of the Paris Chamber of Commerce for 1860 
this business was estimated at twenty-seven millions seven hundred and 
sixty-five thousand, and we may justly reckon it at double for the year 
1867; this, added to the forty millions done by seamstresses, will make 
the entire business amount to ninety-five millions of francs per year. • 

We cannot estimate the quantity of material used by dressmakers, its 
fineness and value; because the variety of stuffs is so great, and they 
change the fashion so often, certainly the quantity used cannot be 
reckoned with justness. 

Every industry that is controlled by fashion is so changeable that the 
material used in it escapes all analj'sis, and cannot be correctly esti- 
mated. 

We think we have shown that we were right in affirming that the 
clothing industry is the most extensive industry in the world. In fact, 
is there a single business that can compare with the figures we have given , 
and which employs seventy-five thousand working men and women, one- 
twentieth of the population of Paris, at salaries amounting to more than 
eighty millions in the aggregate? If the question be studied in a fixmily 
point of view, with humauitariau and moral considerations, the conse- 
quences and benefits of the industry are incalculable. The married 
woman finds a remunerative labor in making clothes, a labor she can 
carry on at home, and which helps the housekeeping; the young girl can 
work at home, in the business, or in a shop with other girls, at good wages, 
and is not obliged to work in large manufactories, where crowds of men 
and women, old aud young, often produce lamentable and immoral 
consequences. 

If the question be examined in an economical light, from an indus- 
trial i^oint of view, we are instantly struck with the immense quantity 
of material used in the business, which in Paris alone amounts to one 
hundred and fifty millions, forty millions of which are sent abroad. 

But for this business, which makes the fashions of Paris known all 
over the world, our material, not better than that of other nations, 
would not have such extensive consumption. The clothes-making busi- 
ness, in fact, is the main support of our manufacture of tissues, aud is 
certainly the principal cause of the prosperity of our grand industrial 
establishments. 

These consequences are due to the causes we have enumerated, as well 
as to the men who have taken such a large part in the manufacture of 
articles of clothing for both sexes. If we take as a basis the forty mill- 
ions of tissues exported by clothing establishments, and the labor 
required to work up the raw material, we must give credit to the cloth- 
ing business for much of our prosperity. 



54 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

HATS FOE MEN AND WOMEN. 

The word hat, accordiug to etymology and the standard dictionaries, 
signifies "a covering for the head made of various materials and worn 
hy men or women, for defending the head from rain or heat, or for orna- 
ment. " We have italicised the only j)art — and in j)roportion to the sub- 
ject it is a large one — of the definition applicable to the articles that were 
exposed under the title of hats for women. There was a large collection 
of them, marvellous for diversity of material and form and devices of 
littleness — capricious snips of things "pricked in with the humor of 
forty fancies.'- They had their fantastic charm withal, though nothing 
about them was so astonishing to a mere man's mind, seeing their 
diminutiveness and apparent frailty, as to learn what heavy prices they 
bore. Some were made of ivory and pearl, others of leather. There 
were some composed entirely of feathers, others of paper, yet other 
fragilities of glass. 

In the manufacture of hats for men Paris excels London for lightness, 
but not durability. Cork enters largely into the composition of the finest 
qualities, securing both lightness and imx)erviousuess to rain. Much 
ingenious machinery is used for preparing the cork and cutting it into 
the thinnest of leaves. In the Italian section was a cork hat made uj) 
of two thousand one hundred pieces. Felt hats, 6f which there is a 
large manufacture in France mainly for exportation, were exposed in 
profusion. They are made by molding and pressure in the same man- 
ner as the seamless coat spoken of above. The whole process was seen 
in operation in the machinery department, where the raw material was 
transformed in a few minutes to the finished hat. In the same dej)art- 
ment, boot and shoe making machinery from Alexandria was working 
rapidly and well. There were several varieties of straw hats from 
South America; very cheap and serviceable articles in like kind, such 
as are conimonly worn by sailors and fishermen from Malta; others 
made of the fibre of a plant, very strong and impervious to sun, wind, 
and rain, from the Cape of Good Hope. Besides felts, Italy sent some 
exceedingly fine specimens of straw from Leghorn and other places; 
and Enghind presented a handsome show of chip hats. 

The most picturesque caps, embroidered with gold, were from the 
Eastern countries. Austria excelled in red cloth tasselled caps. The 
plainest came from England, the cheapest and most serviceable from 
Hungary. 

MANUFACTURE OF HATS FOR MEN. 

The centers of the hat trade in France are Paris, Marseilles, Lyons, 
Aix, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and some other southern towns. The mate- 
rials most used in the manufacture are the skins of the beaver and 
muskrat, imported from Canada, that of the Goudin rat, from South 
America, hare and rabbit fur, and various kinds of wool. There are two 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. , 55 

distinct divisions of tlie maniifactiire, namely: that of tlie soft and firm 
felt hats, and that of silk bats. Workmen, whose special business it is to 
cut the hair from the skins, furnish the makers with their raw materials. 
Tbe manufacture of French hats consists of several distinct processes. 
The fur is first beaten either by hand or machine. A felt bag twice the 
size of the hat is thus produced, which is then filled by hand or by a ma- 
chine constructed specially for this purpose. The hat is now scraped 
with a knife, to take ofi" the long hairs, rubbed with i^umice stone, and 
stifltened, or not, as the case may require. IS'ext come the processes of 
dyeing-, blocking into form, binding, and the insertion of the head lining 
and leather. 

A different system prevails for silk hats. First the form is made of 
the fiibric preferred, stiffened with gum sheljac. A kind of silk plush 
is made to adhere to the exterior of this form, and within is inserted 
material suited for a lining. Many silk hats are made with the adhesive 
linings, in which case the interior SAirface becomes i)art of the solid shell. 

The skilled workmen command high wages, comparatively getting as 
high as ten francs per day. The average, however, is between forty and 
fifty francs a week. The w^ork is done by the piece, under the sui)ervision 
of foremen chosen from among the best workmen. The latter earn from 
two thousand to three thousand francs per year. Women in this trade 
are paid from eighteen to twenty francs per week. Most of the operatives 
work in the factories. French hats are exported to nearly all parts of 
the world, and sold from three or four francs to twenty-five or thirty. 
Opera hats, made with compressible spring sides, are exported in con- 
siderable quantities. The manufacture amounts to about five millions 
of dollars estimating on the gold basis, the exports being about twelve 
million francs. Great improvements in hat-making machinery are con- 
stantly coming into use. Pretty much the same materials continue to be 
used, but the wages of workmen have increased. The great manufac- 
turers now make and finish completely their goods, and practically the 
hatter whose name is in the crown is only an agent between the pro- 
ducer and consumer. 

Twenty millions of francs' worth of caps are also made per year in 
France, the sewing and embroidery being in a great measure done by 
machinery; not many of these are exported. The kejn, which has since 
1848 been introduced into the army, the public schools, and administra- 
tions, constitutes quite a proportion of the manufacture, and a considera- 
ble number of Greek or Fez caps are made, either knit or felted ; the 
principal places for the manufacture of these being Paris, Orleans, 
Eueil, Condom, and Chalons, and many of them are exported. 

BOOTS AND SHOES. 

Boots and shoes were exhibited in great abundance by many nations. 
Among them a case in the American section, from Burt & Co., of New 



56 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

York, bore favorable comparison with the best of foreign make. The 
present style of French boots is, like Achilles, open to attack Id the 
heel, which is too high and bronght so far forward as to change the nat- 
ural point of support, throw the weight of the body too heavily on the 
toes and unsteady the pose. It makes the foot look smaller from the 
front, and pitches the body slightly forward. 

THE BOOT AND SHOE MANUPACTIIRE IN FRANCE. 

Many ingenious improvements in machinery for this manufacture have 
been made. The business is divisible into three classes — sewed boots 
and shoes, those pegged or nailed, and those fastened by screws. Most 
of the French sewed boots and shoes are made in Paris, Nantes, Mar- 
seilles, Bordeaux, and Fougeres; pegged ones in Paris, Liancourt, Ro- 
mans, Blois, and Angers; those made with screws are only iirodaced in 
Paris. Most of the findings and trimmings of boots and shoes of the 
French manufacture are made in France. The workmen are divided 
into three classes, the foremen, receivers, and cutters. Half of the opera- 
tives are women, who receive about half the rate of wages paid to the men, 
the men being ijaid about four francs per day. The ready-made trade 
is carried on by commercial travelers who sell to the provincial dealers. 
Commission merchants buy for exportation. The average price of good 
boots and shoes is sixteen francs for those worn by men, eight francs 
for women's, and six francs for children's. The more common sorts 
for men are sold on an average at eight francs, those for women at five 
francs, and those for children at three francs a i)air. These xjroduc- 
tions of the French trade are exported principally to North and South 
America, East and West Indies, England, Italy, &c. Paris alone pro- 
duces boots and shoes to an amonnt of one hundred million francs; the 
provinces also contribute largely to this trade, and about forty million 
francs worth are exjiorted. Since 1855, the use of sewing machines for 
sewing together the upper leathers has become very gcDeral. 

MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING IN THE UNITED ' STATES. 

In the earlier days of this republic most of the clothing used, except 
among persons of wealth, was of household or strictly domestic origin. 
Great simplicity of dress was a requirement of the austere ideas of pro- 
priety prevailing in those days, and the colonial codes, many of them, 
contain statutory restrictions on the subject, the violations of which were 
punished by penalties of various degrees of severity. 

The first fulling mill in America was erected about the year 1613 
at Rowley, in Massachusetts; yet, in the year 1713 it is recorded that 
there was but one clothier in Connecticut, who could do little more than 
full a portion of the homespun made, much of which was worn unshorn 
and undressed. 

The wealthier classes in the colonial i^eriod imported much of their 
clothing material and aU of the finer cloths from England. In the larger 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 57 

cities and towns, however, tailoriup;- establishments found ample patron- 
age. 

The tailors were sufficiently numerous and important in Philadelphia 
in 1718 to apply to the city government for an act of incorporation. A 
Master Tailors' Society was incorporated in that city in 1805. 

The branch of ready-made clothing business commenced in 1825, and 
was started chiefly to supply a demand for ready-made clothing in the 
southern States and certain foreign countries. The production of cloth- 
ing by the wholesale, with the aid of labor-saving i^rocesses, naturally 
made a great reduction in the prices of this class of wearing apparel, and 
its use has become very general among persons of moderate incomes. 
Our import duty on ready-made clothing has ranged as follows: from 
181G to 1828, (inclusive,) thirty per cent, ad valorem; from 1828 to 1816, 
fifty per cent.; 181G to 1857, thirty per cent.; 1857 tol8G2, twenty-four 
per cent. ; since that time, thirty-five per cent. 

The average annual value of ready-made clothing imported into the 
United States from Great Britain in 1827 and 1828 was about $803,000. 
For the next six years it fell to an average of $198,000; for the ten years 
ending 1844, the average was about $808,000; for the years 1851 and 
1852, $97,032. Our exports of clothing for 1827 and 1828 averaged 
$119,510; for the next five years $75,570; and for the ten years from 
1833 to 1843, the annual average was $118,730. In 1851 and 1852 the 
average annual exports reached the value of $250,102. 

Four cities manufactured more than one-half of the whole quantity 
produced in the United States, namely: New York, $17,011,370; Phila- 
delphia, $9,984,497; Cincinnati, $0,381,190; and Boston, $4,507,749. 

An extensive and important change has taken place of late years in 
the dry-goods trade, through the extension of the ready-made clothing 
business, which has thrown the importation and sale of foreign and 
domestic cloths to a great degree into the hands of wholesale clothing 
merchants, and thus tlie jobbing business is united with that of manu- 
facturers and dealers in clothing on a large scale. These branches, in 
consequence of the high cost of materials, the long credits given, and 
other circumstances, require heavy investments of capital and a high 
degree of discrimination and judgment in the selection of goods. Some 
of the establishments are so extensive as to require several thousand 
persons to perform the various duties pertaining to the manufacture and 
sale of clothing. The male hands have been principally German and 
Irish immigrants, the cutters being principally American, and they have 
uniformly received higher wages than the same classes could earn in 
Europe. The sewing machine has been extensively used in this business 
for several years, and has given a vast impetus to the trade. It has 
done this by cheapening the exi)ense of production, as well as by 
enabling the manufacturer to turn out his work at the shortest notice, 
and thus keep pace with the changes of fiishion in regard to the cut of 
' the clothing and the style of material. In fact, it was mainly the result 



58 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

of the introduction of tlie sewing machine that the many small shops 
have been to a great extent superseded by the large wholesale establish- 
ments. This change is most forcibly illustrated by the fact that, from 
1850 to 18G0, the number of establishments was reduced eleven per cent, 
and the number of hands increased two and four-tenths per cent, only, 
yet the capital invested in the business increased nearly one hundred 
per cent., and the aggregate value of the product five and one half per 
cent. 

HBAD-DEESSES FOR LADIES. 

The head-dress is among the most conspicuous of the articles which 
determine the style or fashionable character of a lady's appearance; and 
it is in Paris, chiefly, that the novelties of this department are originated. 
The materials used in the manufacture of bonnets aud caps, such as 
buckram, whalebone, wire, various stuffs, flowers and lace, are obtained 
from special manufacturers. There is no fixed method of preparing 
articles of millinery. It is altogether a matter of taste and ingenuity. 
Tlwe workmanship forms only a small item in the value. The average 
of wages of working milliners is two aud a half francs per diem. Nearly 
all the milliners sell direct to the purchaser. Some firms, however, make 
up articles siiecially for exportation, and these alone employ uuder-milli- 
ners, who receive the necessary materials for a certain number of bonnets 
and head-dresses, and prepare the work by arranging and fastening the 
various stuffs upon the ready-made shapes which they furnish. The 
ribbons and flowers are always added by the milliner herself. It is 
difficult to estimate the exact value of millinery annually produced in 
France; but it must be considerable, as the Parisian milliners' returns 
amount to nearly twenty millions of francs, or nearly four million dollars 
in gold. About one-tenth of this is exported, chiefly to America, 
England, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Prussia, and to the French 
and English colonies. 

ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. 

The annual French — chiefly Parisian — production of artificial flowers, 
of which about three-fourths are exported, amounts in value to eighteen 
million francs. The display of them, in what may be styled the ladies' 
department of the Exhibition, was one of its most attractive features. 
The fidelity to nature of these counterfeit presentments — in leaf, and 
blossom, and i^istil, in exquisite fineness of line, and tenderest shade in 
gradation of color, to the very dew glistening on the iietals — is so decep- 
tive that it is only by an appeal from the eye to the sense of smell that 
nature can sustain her prior claim. The counterfeit representatives of 
every clime in this international floral dis])lay vied in hue and form with 
their living originals in the park and horticultural annex. For certain 
purjioses of ornamentation they are, indeed, superior to the growth of 
the garden. They do not droop and fade as the gaiety of the ball room 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABEICS. 59 

rises, uor by tlieir perfume weigli the lieated atmospliere "vritli an addi- 
tional sickly element. 

The production of artificial flowers may be named among the artistic 
specialties of Paris, in which she stands without a rival. The materials 
which it consumes are various and delicate ; for the leaves and blossoms, 
jaconet, nausook, cambric, muslin, velvet, crape, satin, silk, French 
cambric, feathers, paper, aud wax are made use of 5 and for the stems, 
berries, and fruits, wire, silk, cotton, floss-silk, paper, starch, gum, gela- 
tine, wax, paste, chenille, quills, whalebone, gauze, chopped wool, and 
glass balls. For mounting the flowers, silk, paper, gauze, and iron and 
brass are required. The workmen always use the same instruments, 
goffering irons, stamps, &c. The galvanoplastic process is sometimes 
employed. The cost of workmanshixD amounts to about four-tenths of 
the value of the productions, and the materials employed to about three- 
tenths. The remaining three-tenths represent the profit of the producer. 
This manufacture is divided into a great many diiferent branches. 
For the preparation of the colors there are special workshops. The work 
is generally carried on at the homes of the* work-people. This trade 
employs fifteen thousand persons, nine-tenths being women and girls. 
The men earn about four francs a day, the women two francs twenty -five 
centimes. The mounting and sale of flowers is carried on for the most 
l^art in handsome shops and show-rooms, where all kiuds of flowers are 
generally sold as well as the different sorts of ornamental feathers. Three- 
fourths of the entire manufacture are exported through the medium of 
commission agents. The value of the trade is about fifteen million 
fi'ancs per annum. The flowers are exported to America, England, 
Belgium, Eussia, and. Germany. 



CHAPTER IV. 
LACES, FANS, GLOVES, ETC. 

The manufacture op rare and costly lace by hand — Notices of specially 

INTERESTING EXHIBITIONS OF LxVCE — MaCHINE-JIADE LACES — WaGES, CONDITIONS, 
AND DIVISIONS OF LABOR — EDUCATION OF LACE-MAKERS — TlIE BRITISH ARTISj\JS^S 

UPON LACE — Manufacture op lace in various countries — Embroidery — Man- 
ufacture OF PANS — Manufacture of gloves est France, England, and other 
countries — ^Elastic tissues, suspentjers, belts, garters, .\nd bracelets. 

THE PEINCIPAL DISPLAYS OF LACE. 

The manufacture of lace of the most rare and costly descriptions is 
•performed by hand labor, the designs being furnished by artists who 
possess a high degree of skill — the result of long-continued studies and 
practice under circumstances most favorable to the attainment of i^rofi- 
ciency in the specialty of producing designs adapted to this manufacture. 

The point laces of Alen5on and that of Brussels are so intricate and 
the manipulations so delicate and difficult that it is necessary to give a 
life-long training to the operators to secure excellency in each distinct 
characteristic of fabrication. 

The art of lace-making has been carried to such perfection that a suf- 
ficient indication of light and shade can be introduced to give an approx- 
imation even in such transparent tissues as the Brussels and the Alen- 
9on point to the relief effects attained in engraving. 

The specimens of Alen§on point and other French lace at the ExiJosi- 
tion were carefully selected and very beautiful in design and workman- 
ship. The black lace of Baj^eux and Calvados is the most important 
and extensively manufactured in France. 

One of the leading firms in the production of this lace is Messrs. 
Lefebure, who exhibited a dress of point d'Alengon, combining the high- 
est qualities of the art, the price of which was 116,450 in gold. This 
dress, consisting of two flounces and trimmings, took the labor of forty 
women for two years to produce it. The same firm had also a superb 
point or half-shawl of black lace 5 the design consisted of a large central 
bouquet of roses perfectly shaded and standing out as it were from the 
ground. This central cluster was surrounded by a border of roses, upon 
which equal skill was displayed. The price was a trifle less than two 
thousand dollars in gold. 

Another example by the same exhibitors was a bridal veil, the ground 
of which was needle point, the flowers application made at Ghent, and 
the border in the style of Yenice point, while figures in point d'Alen^on 
formed part of this rich and harmonious composite. The lace of Malines 
or Mechlin lace, as well as the ancient rose or Venice point in high re- 
lief, were shown by the same house. 



62 ^ARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Among the many admirable specimens of black Bayeux laces were tlie 
following', by Messrs. Verde-Delisle : a point ornamented with beanti- 
fully shaded flower forms, a iKirasol of finest quality, and a flounce of 
ferns and flowers, and a dress pattern. They also displayed a flounce of 
lioint d'Alengon, style of Louis XV, the flowers in medallions ; a dress of 
Brussels mixed points, and some specimens of Cluny guipure, and some 
altar cloths. Messrs. Lefebure and Messrs. Yerde-Delisle enjoy an envi- 
able distinction for sujieriority in the design and quality of their fabrics. 

Among the other notable specimens in the French section were a 
very elegant tunic of white lace made partly in Brussels and partly at 
Mirecourt; a black lace flounce of exquisite fineness of texture, a black 
lace parasol, a Bayeux flounce in roses, handkerchiefs bordered with 
Venice point and filet from the Convent of Notre Dame du Puy, black 
silk guipure shawls and laces printed in colors or embroidered with 
pearls, from Auvergne. 

The Belgian section, too, presented an exhibition of laces hardly infe- 
rior to those of similar grades in the French; the Dromment varieties 
being Brussels, point k I'aiguille, plat, application, Grammont and 
Mechlin. A dress of "point gaze" exhibited by Hoorickx was valued at 
$10,000. 

The principal manufacture of lace in Belgium is that of the Valencien- 
nes variety. It is made throughout East and West Flanders, the finest 
qualities being Ypres, West Flanders. Grammont, West Flanders, is 
the seat of an extensive manufacture of black lace in which considerable 
improvements have been made. 

There was a creditable display of shawls of this lace by the collective 
exhibitors of Grammont. These are not so carefully worked, however, 
as the Bayeux laces of the same class. 

Prussia and the German states exhibited only some needle point 
flounces of Berlin edgings from IsTurtingen. Austria, a point impe- 
rial and the coarser laces of Boheuiia. Spain, the lace of Barcelona. 
Sweden, the torchon lace of the peasantry. Eussia, that of Helsingfors. 
Italy, the black and white pillow-made laces of Genoa and imitations of 
French laces. Rome, a remarkable specimen of old Venetian point. 
Turkey, white silk crochet lace from Smyrna and the Island of Rhodes. 
Malta, her traditional black and white guipures. England, Devonshire 
lace, Honiton, Cluny, and needle-made laces. Ireland, guipure. Central 
and South iVmerica are represented to a very limited extent in laces 
characteristic of Paraguay, Uruguay, Chili, Venezuela and Brazil. 

NET AND MACHINE LACE. 

Imitations of some of the standard laces have been successfully made 
by machinery of ingenious construction, chiefly at Calais and Amiens 
in France, and Nottingham in England. The French produce in this 
way imitations of Valenciennes, Cluny, colored laces, white and black 
blondes, especially excelling in white blondes, which are to a great degree 
taking the place of the hand-made lace of the same type. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 63 

Amiens produces the finest llama and yak sliawls. Plain and embroid- 
ered silk tulles are made chiefly at Lyons. 

Brussels net made by machinery now used as a ground for laces has 
superseded the pillow-made ground, at an immense saving of labor and 
expense and giving equally satisfactory and artistic results. 

WAGES, CONDITIONS, AND DIVISIONS OF LABOR. 

There are in Calais and St. Pierre seven hundred and eighty machines, 
the best of which were built in Nottingham and its vicinity. They are 
all in factories worked by steam-power, running all hours, commencing 
work from six to seven o'clock on Monday morning, continuing until ten 
o'clock on Saturday evening; in some establishments working up to 
ten and twelve o'clock on Sunday morning. 

A great deal of liberty is allowed the workmen for social intercourse, 
and a large amount of affability and familiarity exists between employers 
and employed in the various workshops. 

There are two men at each machine taking alternate shifts or tarns 
in working, one commencing on Monday, from 6 to 7 a. m., continuing 
until 9 a. m., and the other coming on at 9 a. m,, and working until 1 
p. m., the first coming back at 1 p. m., remaining until G p. m. The one 
leaving ofi" at 1 p. m. returns at ]). m. and works until 2 a. m., and so 
on through the^week. 

The law in France is that a week's notice shall be given and taken by 
the employed ; the man, if these conditions have been fairly complied 
with, receiving what is termed his Uvret, in which is described his per- 
sonal appearance, answering the i^urpose of a passport to any part of 
France. If the employer refuse to give the Uvret he is liable to a fine 
of fifty francs. If the workman leaves in debt it is inserted in his 
Uvret, and his next employer, according to law, can stop one-fourth of his 
earnings for the purpose of refunding the debt to his former master. 

In the lace trade terms are used to denote the width of machines, such 
as "quarters ;" any number of inches a machine is in width upon being 
divided by nine inches (a quarter of a yard,) gives the number of quar- 
ters. " Gauges" are counted by the number of points or combs contained 
in an inch. All gauges are calculated from the ten-point standard. 

The workmen are paid by the "rack," consisting of one thousand nine 
hundred and twenty motions of the machine. 

EDUCATION OP LACE-MAKERS. 

As a means of artistic education, the perfect freedom of access to the 
picture galleries appears to be taken great advantage of, and fully appre- 
ciated by the people ; as upon our visit to the Louvre, in one gallery 
alone, we witnessed fifteen persons, old and young of both sexes, copying 
the paintings of the great masters. The beautiful gardens are another 
source of attraction and instruction to the i3eople. The intimate and 



64 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

social freedom we noticed existing between tlie employer and employed, 
is another source of great improvement to the work-people. 

THE BRITISH ARTISANS UPON LACE, 

In tlie reports by the British artisans there is one upon lace by Edward 
Smith, Joseph Bird, and George Dexter, delegates recommended by 
the Kottiugham Chamber of Commerce, from which the following is 
extracted : 

"Believing in its im^iortance," (the lace manufacture,) "we have 
endeavored to the best of our ability to ascertain the quality of work 
turned out by different nations; influences affecting the character of the 
Avork and trade generally, such as cost of material, wages, conditions 
and divisions of labor, education, habits of life, amusement, and trade 
associations. 

"The first class of goods we inspected was the French department. 
Group IV, Class 33. 

"The hand-made laces are of surpassing beauty: the intricacy of and 
perfect following out of the leaves and flowers of various plants introduced 
into the designs are very delicate and truthful. We are of opinion that 
the carrying out of the design in the hand -made lace must have an 
abiding and elevating power upon the minds of the females engaged in 
this branch of industry, imj)lanting a taste for the beautiful that no doubt 
descends to their children, widening and spreading in its character and 
influencing all who may come in contact with them. 

" The total number of lace makers is estimated at two hundred thousand 
women and girls. They gain on an average one franc twenty-five cen- 
times per day; some who are particularly skillful and industrious earn as 
much as three francs fifty centimes for ten hours' hard work. Lace-m akers 
are for the most part peasant women, who all, without exception, work at 
their own homes, often quitting their lace pillows and babes to attend to 
household duties or to work in the fields ; lace-making has the advantage of 
being carried on at home, and, therefore, of not depri^dng agriculture of 
too mauy able hands. French lace is sold iu all markets — in the United 
States, the Brazils, Russia, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, the East and 
the West Indies. Paris is the principal center of consumption , the young 
females wearing a very tasteful description of head-dress com^josed of 
all kinds of lace. 

"The macliine-made laces are of a very high character both as regards 
quality of material and design. It is impossible to carry out the design 
to perfection unless a sufiicient number of motions of the machine is 
gone through so as to give an opportunity for the figuring threads to lay 
in the work in that smooth and rounded form, successfully tracing the 
design ujion the lace as upon paper. This is pre-eminently the feature of 
the French machine-made laces. All the articles from the broadest to 
the narrowest widths exhibit the same beauty of construction. The laces 
exhibited consist i)riucii)ally of blondes, black laces, edgings, guipm^es, 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 65 

and Climys. The blondes have a bright silvery appearance; the black 
laces, in the form of shawls, 11 ounces, &c., disi)lay great beauty of design 
and brightness in the thick-thread silks, not only in the goods exhibited, 
but those we saw in the course of manufacture at Calais and St. Pierre 
near Calais. 

"A first-class article would appear to be the ruling feature in the minds 
of the manufacturers, the design in no way being sacrificed for the sake 
of cheapness." 

MANUFACTUEE OF LACE IN VAEIOUS COUNTEIES.^ 

The generic term lace comprises all those fine thread works made by 
spindle or needle. 

Spindle lace is made in a simple portable frame, in the operative's lap, 
with spindles and thread, and i)ins to guide the thread or point out the 
design. There has been no recent change in this frame or loom, nor in 
the method of lace-making ; the same process has been followed for four 
hundred years. Spindle lace is made of any textile fiber; flax, cotton, 
silk, wool, hair, and even gold and silver wire are used in its fabrication, 
producing the common jncot., at five centimes a yard, or the sumptuous 
lace that sells like precious stones. Needle lace, generally termed i^oiut 
lace, is made with a common needle, after a pattern held in the hand ; 
and white thread is the usual material for it. 

The manufacture of lace is very varied; so much so that we might say 
there were as many varieties as factories. Lace is made in every part of 
the world, and no two kinds are alike, though the mode of making be 
similar ; and for that reason laces generally take their names from the 
places where they are made. It is said the business of lace-making in 
Europe gives employment to more than half a million women and girls; 
they all work at home and earn ten or fifteen centimes an hour. 

All the large lace manufixctories were represented at the Exposition. 
Yv^e will only notice some of the principal ones in Europe. France and 
Belgium are the great lace-making countries, and give work to four-fifths 
of the females employed in that peculiarly feminine industry. 

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 

Spain was once renowned for its blonde silk lace; the prosperity of 
the business has been declining for many years, and now it is almost 
extinct. The lace made there now is for robes, mantillas, veils, and 
garments used at home or in the American colonies. Barcelona is the 
central lace market of Spain. The operatives of Catalonia are not 
wanting in skill; and they often excel in this delicate work. With 
liroper encouragement they might supply the world, at a reasonable 
price. 

The production of Portugal and Madeira is less important than that of 

1 Extracts translated from the rejiort of M. Felix Aubry, Class 33, Vol. IV, Jury Rej)orts. 
5 C W F 



QQ PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Spain ; and it is confined cliiefly to narrow lace for trimming. The work 
of the Portuguese operatives is good, solid, and cheap ; but the designs 
are old and are wanting in taste ; with proper direction they could make 
as good lace as is found in Puy, and might rival that part of our country 
in its i^roduction. 

GERMANY. 

Spindle lace, which is made all over Germany, even in Denmark and 
Bohemia, is known in commerce as Saxon lace. The principal centers 
of its production are Annaberg, Dresden, Eibenstock, Carlsbad, and 
Tonderu. The ditterent kinds of German lace are generally common 
looking and of inferior quality ; the designs are old and ugly, unless 
copied from French designs; and the workmanship is far inferior to 
any of ours, in fact, is not as good as that of Auvergne. But the Saxon 
lace has one advantage over ours, that of price ; the cost of making it 
in the Erzgebirge and Vogtland is much less than in France. In this 
very important point of view, the Saxon lace beats us in the markets of 
America and Eussia. 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

Three varities of lace are made in the United Kingdom : Irish lace, 
Buckingham lace, and Honiton lace. 

Irish lace is like nothing in France or anywhere else ; it is cheap, and 
the great number of women who work it do not get so much for it as 
our operatives. The different kinds of Irish lace partake of the nature 
of embroidery, fringe, crochet work, spindle and needle lace ; they are 
sold only in England and America ; the use of them has decreased in 
late years. 

The Buckingham lace of England is chiefly made in the counties of 
Northampton, Bedford, Oxford, and Buckingham. The English lace- 
makers are skillful, they work with silk or thread and produce an article 
of excellent quality. In 18G2 the business prospered, but it is now under- 
going a crisis that may j)rove fatal to it. It sent nothing to the Expo- 
sition this year ; the reason of this decline is the competition of Caen 
in edging and insertion, and of Grammont for larger pieces. 

Honiton lace has a i)eculiar and characteristic quality ; it is made in 
Devonshire, resembles white spindle gimp, with fine embroidered 
relief; some large i)ieces excel all other lace in elegance, perfection, and 
value. The samples of Honiton, exhibited b^^ Hay ward of London, were 
particularly admired; they united beauty of workmanship, grace of 
design, fineness of material, and harmony of particulars. It is so much 
in vogue that it has become the (^ourt etiquette of England to wear it, 
being distinguished for finish, brilliancy, and freshness. The guipure 
and application of Belgium are so dark they could not be used if not 
bleached in a solution of powdered carbonate of lead. This process is 
very injurious to the health of the bleachers, and for that reason the 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 67 

English Lave abandoned it, and give premiums to the lace-makers that 
will deliver their work in a clean and natural state. This Honiton lace 
is the best in England; it is even superior to the best that is made in 
France or Belgium. Lace is also made in some of the English colonies; 
the best known is the thread and silk guipure of Malta ; it is well made, 
of excellent quality, and is reasonable in j)rice. 

BELGIUM. 

Xest to France, Belgium gives employment to the largest number of 
lace-makers ; the number is said to be over one hundred thousand, dis- 
persed over the provinces of Hainaut, Flanders, and Brabant. They 
produce five kinds of lace: Yalenciennes, Mechlin, Grammont, Brussels, 
and Flanders guipure. 

Valenciennes is the best; it is extensively known, much sought for, 
and appreciated for its strength, lightness, and elegance. The business 
done in this lace amounts to twenty millions of francs a year. It has been 
vainly attempted to produce tiiis lace in other countries, but Belgium 
enjoys the monopoly for its manufacture, and furnishes it to the world. 

The four j)rincipal centers of mannfacture are Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, 
and Courtray. The Valenciennes of Ypres, called square point, is the 
most esteemed. The execution of this elegant tissue seemed to have 
reached perfection long ago, and no improvement could be made in it ; 
yet the rich collection of Valenciennes from the town of Yx)res, varied in 
design, and clear in meshes, demonstrate an incontestable sui^eriority in 
the skill of the operatives and the cleverness of their employers. 

Mechlin lace was much in vogue a few years ago, it is a fine, light, 
elegant lace, to be had for a reasonable price ; but it is out of fashion 
now, and very little is made. 

Gkammont lace has undergone a change ; twenty years ago it was 
made entirely of white thread ; now black silk is used for it. Its manu- 
facture has increased five-fold since 1855 ; this is due to its good quality 
and low price. The meshes are not so close as in France; the difficulties 
of making it are so utilized as to substitute choice designs and intelligent 
combinations of execution, and thus furnish showy pieces at a lower 
price than anywhere else. Much is sent to America, Germany, England, 
and liussia. It certainly cannot compare with our elegant productions 
of Bayeux, but it may offer a formidable competition. 

Brussels lace. — The lace factories of Brussels rival all the others 
in Belgium. Two kind of laces are chiefly made there : Single flowers, 
made by pin or needle, and intended to be ax)plied on tulle, and gauze 
point, called Venice point. Application on tulle imi^roves every day, yet 
it is strange its production does not increase, and we can give no reason 
for it. Gauze point, however, made a splendid show at the Exposition, 
it was rich, regular, clear, and of tasteful design. We must mention the 
establishment of Lef6bure & Son, of Paris, carried on at Destelberghe, 
where application flowers are worked, as well as gauze point. This model 



68 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

establishment unites the excellencies of the spindle and needle lace work, 
it sends new designs to the Paris market, that are artistically got up 
and rendered with perfect taste. 

Flanders guipure. — Other kinds of lace are made in Belgium, but 
they belong to the preceding categories. However, we owe a special 
mention to white guipure, made with a shuttle, called Flanders guipure. 
This lace is made at Bruges and in the neighborhood; it is an excellent 
imitation of the seventeenth centmy guipare; rich and loaded with 
designs, it is very light and elegant. It is like Honiton; but it is not 
so fine; the meshes are not so small, yet it is furnished at a reasonable 
I)rice. It is one of the prettiest productions of the lace industry. 

LACE-MAKING IN FRANCE. 

There are six varieties of lace made in France: Alengon point; Lille 
and Arras lace; Bailleul lace; Chautilly, Caen, and Bayeux lace; Mire- 
court lace ; and Puy lace. 

Alenqon. — The French i^oint lace, called j^oint cVAlengon, is made 
at Alen9on and Bayeux; it is the only kind of French lace that is made 
entirely with a needle; it has reached an incomparable perfection, and 
certain pieces are real objects of art. This is the most sumptuous of 
all laces, it has a strength that defies time and the washer- women, for that 
reason it merits the surname of queen of laces. Ever since the time of 
Colbert, Alen9on and Argentan have been the center of this manufac- 
ture; but in 1855, Auguste Lefebure, one of our best manufacturers, 
started a factory for it at Bayeux, where he modified and improved the 
stjde so as to give it a desirable peculiarity. We have never seen any- 
thing to equal the Aleneon lace from Bayeux, exhibited at the late 
Exposition. 

Lille and Arras. — The manufactories of Lille and Arras formerly 
produced many blonde laces, on a clear ground, greatly esteemed for 
their freshness, lightness and good quality. When fashion no longer, 
favored that style of lace, the manufacture diminished sensibly. 

Bailleul. — At Bailleul and in the neighborhood, they weave a kind 
of Yalencieune less fine and clear than that of Ypres, but which is greatly 
esteemed for its whiteness, its solidity and its cheapness. 

Chantilly, Bayeux, and Caen.— The dark-colored laces of these 
three places are identical; they are chiefly coniposed of large pieces, as 
shawls, robes, flounces, and veils, made of strips and patches admirably 
joined together by a peculiar stitch. The making of white silk blonde 
having been abandoned, on account of machine rivalry, attention has 
been turned to the manufacture of black laces, which has reached a 
great degree of perfection. The lace of Calvados and Chantilly cannot 
be surpassed. 

Caen is celebrated for its varieties of black lace; it is in fiict the 
commercial product of the place ; much of it is exported. In 1855 Bayeux 
gained the first prize for lace, and it still retains its merited reputation 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 69 

in that line. It produces the best large pieces of extra-flue meshes and 
rich designs, such as are sought after by the opulent classes. 

Some years ago Mr. Schneider, president of the legislative body, 
wishing to give employment to the wives and daughters of his operatives, 
put up lace factories at Creusot, where elegant point lace is made, re- 
sembling that of Chantilly and Bayeux. 

MiRECOUET. — The factory at Mirecourt has a reputation for the 
novelty, variety, and good quality of its laces ; the operatives there are 
very skillful in their work; under an intelligent direction, they follow 
the freaks of fashion, aod invent new patterns that are instantly 
accepted by customers and soon imitated by foreign manufacturers. It 
is certainly the most active and inventive lace-making place we know; 
being a liind of leader to all rivals. The articles exhibited were varied 
and of new style, and of course much admired, particularly a bed spread, 
a robe, and a chasuble in relief guipure. 

Four or five years ago Madam Gandillot, a woman of taste, tried to 
get the operatives of Mirecouut to revive old abandoned fashions; she 
finally succeeded, and her art guiimres were immediately accepted, and 
gave origin to a new and cheaper style, called Gliiny lace, which had 
wonderful success greatly benefiting French manuf^xctures. 

PUY. — If the Mirecourt factory is more ready at invention, that of 
Puy is more important. Its work spreads over four departments of 
Auvergne, and employs near one hundred thousand women and girls of 
the mountains. The central market is Puy. 

The Auvergne laces, very various in style, are celebrated for cheap- 
ness; the operatives of this manufacturing cluster, stimulated by a few 
energetic and enlightened persons, have progressed sensibly within the 
last ten years. They can yield to the whim of the moment and use any 
textile material, flax, silk, cotton, wool, and wire, and when the demand 
for one style ceases, they modify their labor, invent a n^ew style and 
spread it rapidly. 

The manufacture here is very active and it improves every day. It 
exhibited a specimen for the flrst time, and it was found to be of diffi- 
cult imitation ; the piece was a bonrnous of Cashmere wool, having all the 
gaudy colors of an India shawl; the combination of variegated flowers 
on a lace foundation created much admiration. It cannot become an 
article of commerce, but it denotes progress and exhibits the skill of the 
Auvergne operatives, and the inventive talent of its manufacturers. 
There is also made in a small quantity at Puy, needle point lace of 
extreme fineness and of an artistic character, almost equaling the Ven- 
ice point, now obsolete. Of all the lace-manufacturing districts of 
France, Puy sends the most productions abroad. / 

SUMMARY. 

The number of lace-makers in France is estimated at 200,000 women 
and girls; their average yAj is from one franc to one franc and a half 



70 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

-pev day of ten hours' work 5 yet some earn as mucli as three francs and 
a half. This pay is influenced much by fashion with its imperious 
and ephemeral exigencies. All these operatives, scattered over fourteen 
departments, work at home, combining- the labor of the spindle and 
needle with field labor and the more urgent duty of housekeeping. Thus 
lace-making has the advantage of being done at home in the family, with- 
out disturbing agricultural labor; it provokes no emigration and does 
not crowd girls in factories, but keeps them from all contact that would 
endanger their morals. For such reasons the business deserves encour- 
agement as beneficial to health, to morals, and to comfort. 

This industry also has the sympathy of all practical and elevated 
minds. Her Majesty, the Emi)ress, has opened a concours for lace-makers, 
and has spent much money for their benefit. Many mannfixcturers and 
directors of benevolent institutions are trying to introduce this industry 
into families. In almost all our northern dei)artments of France, as well 
as in Belgium and Germany, persons fiivored by fortune are rivaling 
each other in the establishment of schools for instruction in lace-making. 

At Alencon, Dieppe, and Caen, the authorities join private individuals 
in the establishment of such institutions: but it is chiefly in Auvergne 
that the most has been done in this way. The prefect, the agricultural 
society, and the board of commerce at Puy, and all enterprising men of 
wealth there, have done what they could to improve tbe moral and 
hygienic conditions of the lace industry. Schools for apprentices are 
founded in all the communes; feasts are given to the best manufacturers, 
and premiums are distributed to the most expert operatives as encour- 
agement to their energy. 

The relations between manufacturers and their operatives are very 
cordial. In fact the lace-maker does not yield her liberty while she sells 
her time and skill ; she can vary her occupation, and her labor is restricted 
to no certain term. If she is not satisfied with her pay she is at liberty 
to quit the work when she pleases and try some other; she can even 
give up what she has begun, if she finds the task too hard, or the com- 
pensation not sufficient. 

Lace-making requires so many and varied designs, that the industry 
has created the specialty of art-designers. 

Machinery is fast taking the place of hand labor in the production of 
garments; plain sewing and even embroidery can be done hj machines, 
but they cannot make lace. Lace-making has nothing to fear from 
machines, which are fast giving a democratic tendency and popular sim- 
plicity to dress : dress now-a-days hardly distinguishes the diflerent 
social classes. Clothes are now bought to wear for the season, not to 
keep, for fashion militates against that. The useful is more looked to 
now than the brilliant in costtime; dresses are no more handed down as 
heir-looms like jewelry. Without deciding whether this is good or bad 
in itself, we must say it benefits the working classes. In spite of this 
change in the consumption of fine and costly articles of dress, lace-mak- 
ing has flourished, though the more costly styles of lace are not so much 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 71 

iu demand as formerly. The art must snifer a crisis; but every crisis 
produces a contest, encourages work, and provokes a liealthy energy. 

This, our national industry, is more fovored in France than in other 
countries; in fact, there is little similarity between French and foreign 
laces. Each of our manufacturing districts has a peculiarity in its lace 
that defies imitation, and of course competition. Though the black lace 
of Grammont and the white of Saxony may be sold cheaper than oars, 
they cannot compete with us in novelty of execution. We are the crea- 
tors, the inventors ; foreigners are the copiers, the imitators. Their lace 
can sell only when om^s is out of fashion. In short, the superiority of 
France in this industrial specialty is indisputable; it does not merely 
belong to the initiative spirit, nor to the perfect taste found in all our 
home inventions; it is the manifest consequence of the concentration of 
two forces, found combined in no national industry so perfectly and so 
harmoniously; that is, man's genius of discovery and the commercial 
expansion of the product; the talent of woman in the execution of a 
labor essentially of her domain, and in its appropriateness to- all the 
caprices of a mode essentially French. 

EMBEOIDERY. 

France, Switzerland, Saxony, Scotland, and Ireland, monopolize the 
industry of white embroidery, which is performed by machinery as well 
as by hand, by the tambour frame, the crochet hook, and the needle. 

Euibroidery iu colors is nu^re characteristic of the Orient, and from 
the eastern nations we find the most gorgeous and varied examples of 
that style; some of which may be mentioned, namely : From Turkey, 
slippers, caps, purses, handles for hookahs, and housings for horses, all 
rich with silk, gold and silver, embroidered over velvet and other mate- 
rials ; Egypt, carpets for prayers, one of violet and one of lilac velvet 
with gold scroll, and borders of silver; Russia, gold embroideries from 
Tiflis, upon crimson velvet of excellent design and skiUful preparation. 

The ecclesiastical vestments i^rodnced at Lyons and Paris are among 
the most elaborate and costly specimens of the art. Prominent among 
them was a chai)e of silver tissue by Barban, of Lyons, embroidered 
with gold, and a chasuble of gold tissue uj)on which, in bold relief, were 
figures partly composed of jewels; and from Paris, by Biais, a chasuble 
of cloth of gold, embroidered in gold, with vine, leaves, and wheat. 

MANUFACTUEE OF FAXS.^ 

The making and sale of fans form one of the oldest branches of 
French industry, under the term of Paris articles. As earl^^ as the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, Italian perfumers introduced the use 
of fans at the court of France; later, when fashion assumed a Spanish 
tone, the fan was in great fiivor, and from that time to the end of the 

1 Extract, translated from tlie report of M. Duvelleroy, of the Internatioual Jury, 
Vol. IV, p. 3^2. 



72 PAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

last century it became an essential part of a French lady's toilet. Thus 
we find that fan-makers were formerly among the guilds of art and trade 
in the city and suburbs of Paris. In 1G73, an edict of Louis XIV con- 
stituted them into a legal body and approved their by-laws. 

Fan-making has always given employment to a number of workmen 
of various trades, as joiners, gilders, glaziers, paperers, i:>lumbers, 
painters, and embroiderers. All these had a. hand in the manufacture of 
fans, which, however simple, require the aid of many trades. It was 
not unusual to see goldsmiths, jewelers, carvers, and painters at work 
in their various ways on this trifling object. 

At that time fans were made at Paris of all values, from fifteen cents 
to forty pistoles. The commerce in fans, for exportation as well as home 
consumption, amounted to a considerable sura. Some manufacturers 
were said to make twenty thousand livres annually, by exporting fans, not 
counting profits from home sales of the same article. Spain, England, and 
Holland were the great customers of France for fans at that period. 
Spain was the only country that kept them; from the others they were 
sent to South America and the Baltic coast. France imi)orted a few 
fans from China and Japan; but they were brought out because of their 
exquisite workmanship, and their value was exorbitant as objects 
of curiosity from a distance. 

The part of the fan which forms the segment of a circle is called the 
leaf. This is sometimes plain, and of a single piece; but usually it is 
formed.of two pieces of paper or other material, glued or jiasted together ; 
and often thin kid-skin is pasted on the pajier. Satin, gauze, tulle, lace, 
crape, and other thin stuffs are used for the body or lining of the fan. 

The leaf is fixed on a mounting called the heft or handle, without 
regard to other component parts; thus they say a heft or handle of pearl, 
ivorj', steel, silver, &c. The strips that form the necli are of the same 
number as the pleats of the leaf; this is from twelve to twenty-four. 
Before the leaf is fixed on the handle, it is put into a stiff paper mold, 
with the number of pleats desired. On closing this mold of two pieces, 
and pressing it, the required pleats are made on the paper fan leaf. 
Between each pleat a copper plate called a sound is introduced. This 
process of pleating was once very complicated; the paper was first 
minutely marked ; and in pleating, the lines had to be followed with 
great precision; the' mold now does away Avith that tedious process. 
The strips are from ten to twelve centimetres in length, and it is on this 
surface that the earAing, gilding, and painting are done. The outside 
stri^js are stouter than the others, to sustain the leaf. All the strips 
are united at the lower end by a rivet, the ends of which are sometimes 
ornamented with jewels or the precious metals. 

The frames of fans are made in the villages of FOise, between Meru and 
Beauvais. The communes of Audeville, Coudray, Noailles, Boissiere, and 
Ste. Genevieve are devoted to this work, which emi)loys three hundred 
persons, men, women, and children. The principal materials used are 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 73 

mother-of-pearl, ivory, horn, boue, tortoise shell, citron and sandal wood, 
ebony, cherry, locust, plum, pear, apple, and all sorts of exotic hard 
wood. The workmen carve, cut, gild, and chisel these woods with great 
skill; but unfortunately they are ignorant of the theoretical principles 
of design, which the younger generation is now introducing. They ex- 
ecute charming mosaics on the side ineces; they have long known the 
process of enameling, and some of the simple country people can rival 
the best artists of Paris in this kind of work. But it is in making 
open-work in ivory, pearl, and shell, that they have no rivals; and this 
solid lace is made by means of small saws, which they make themselves 
out of watch springs. They carve flowers and other ornaments ex- 
quisitely, and they are beginning to make figures in relief. If they will 
only study drawing, a prosperous future will open to them. In short, 
the fan frame goes through the hands of the woodman, the carver, the 
I)olisher, the dyer, the varnisher, the sawyer, the gilder, the burnisher, 
the sculptor, and the spangler. 

The fan-leaf is all made in Paris. A painter furnishes the designs, 
which are lithographed, xylographed, or engraved on copper or steel; 
then the i)aper is printed, j)asted, colored, or painted; made up, 
trimmed, spangled, riveted, and inspected. Thus a finished fan has to 
l)ass through twenty different hands, at least, though it may not sell 
for more than five centimes, or one cent. 

The number of artists and workmen employed in this business in 
Paris and the Oise is over four thousand. The annual profits are ten 
millions of francs; three-fourths of the fans are sent abroad. Though 
this business has been carried on in Sx)ain for thirty years, only common 
articles are produced. Italy makes a great use of fans, but manufac- 
tures none; we furnish fans to Italy. Portugal is the third European 
fan market in rank. The Spaniards and Portuguese carried with them 
to South America the habit of using the fan. Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, 
St. Thomas, Chili, Peru, and the Argentine Eepublic are famous 
markets for French fans. France also sends a few to the East Indies 
and Manila; but there China is a rival in the trade of the common 
article, but cannot compete with France in the production of fine fans. 
France also does a good business with the United States of America, 
where nothing but Paris fashions are acceptable. The late civil war 
that desolated that fine country injured the French trade considerably, 
but the business is again reviving. 

There are no certain rules for the fan trade; it depends entirely on 
fancy. Tastes are infinite. The dealer must watch caprice, for there is 
no article of manufacture that requires less solidity; show is all that is 
necessary in a fan. All South American countries want gaudy articles, 
of brilliant colors, and odd designs; they require grace, beauty, and 
brilliancy even in a fan. The people there like subjects that depict the 
habits of their country, and have reference to their ideas of i)olitical 
independence. Experience and tact in this trade is the only guide for 
our manufacturers. 



74 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Some writers have attempted to prove tliat the fan is of Chinese 
origin, although it is found in every Indian country as well as in China. 
In support of this assertion the testimony of legends is invoked; hence 
the superiority that has long been attributed to China. Any one who 
will take the trouble to examine into the matter will find that France 
has nothing to fear from China, except in the production of ordinary 
fans; and that is not because we do not know how to make them, but 
because our workmen require and enjoy more material comfort than the 
Chinese can command in his country. Except in common fans we 
surpass the Chinese in the tastefulness and infinite variety of our 
designs, which are constantly changing. Paris and China monopolize 
the trade in fans, but all the fashionable people in Europe prefer French 
fans. 

The flourishing condition of this commerce in the reigns of Louis 
XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, was suddenly destroyed by the revo- 
lution; but when the peace of 1815 reopened the world to us, orders for 
fans came from all quarters, and they were manufactured hastily in 
great quantities, but of indifferent quality. It could not have been 
otherwise, for all the good old artists and workmen were dead, or had 
adopted some other business. Things continued thus till 1830, when 
the taste for antiquities having revived, objects of ancient art were 
much sought after. A few years before that period the Duchesse de 
Berry gave historical fancy festivals, and set everybody hunting over 
Spain, Holland, and Germanj- for the flue old fans the French refugees 
had carried with them into those countries. Many were found, but 
they were very costly, and that suggested the idea of reviving the 
industry as one of the flne arts. 

With the assistance of eminent artists, like Gavarni, Diaz, Eugene, 
Lami, Camille Eoqueplau, Glaize, Hamon, Ciceri, Eugene Isabey, Jac- 
quemart, Feuchere, and the like, all painters and sculptors of the flrst 
order, the author of this notice, guided by the models he had on hand, 
attempted to imitate them and revive the manufacture of tasteful and 
costly fans without giving up the making of common fans, that gave 
constant work to country people, who tilled the ground in summer and 
made fans in winter. 

It remains for us now to mention that France took the flrst rank for 
fans at the great French Exposition of 18G7. Japan, India, and China 
sent to all our Expositions fans, screens ornamented with feathers, 
beetles, spangles of a thousand colors, pearls, and embroideries of silk, 
gold, and silver. All those articles are remarkable for the very brilliant 
colors, a secret in the land, and for the cheapness of the workmanship; 
but nothing was new, the same models had served them for centuries. 
Spain has made no progress in common articles, and France still furn- 
ishes fine fans to that country. Austria exhibited some fans of carved 
wood; they are called broken fans in trade. The article is a passing 
fa^cy, and can never form a special industry; moreover, France makes 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 75 

the same articles at less price and in better taste tlian Austria. Mr. 
Schwartz, a Danish trade-sculptor of Copenhagen, exhibited an ivory 
fan with bas reliefs representing Thorwaldsen's seasons; it is a beauti- 
ful piece of worli:, but is the labor of an amateur and not of a mechanic. 
Belgium exhibited some splendid black and white lace fans in Class 33. 

The collections of fans at the Exposition were of two kinds, fans for 
the rich, and fans for export. Three houses, Duvelleroy, Alexandre, 
and Aloys van de Voorde, furnished most of the costly fans; their arti- 
cles were adorned by some of the first modern artists, as Gavarni, 
Colin, Hamon, Philippe Eousseau, Karl Miiller, Diaz, Eugene Lanii, 
Miss Melcy, and Madame Girardin. Of the trade-sculptors and designers 
we must mention Jean Feucheres, Kagmann, Jacquemart, Fanniere 
brothers, Lanoy, Vailland, and Norest. The most important house, in 
a commercial view, manufacturing export fans, is that of M. F. Meyer. 
Next to that comes the house of Fayet, Buissot, Brecheux, Toupiller & 
Co., Yanier, Taveaux, and Caumont. All these houses do their best to 
unite art and industry in the articles they manufacture for exportation, 
catering to the taste of the countries where the products are sent. 

Among the principal inventors we must mention Edward Petit, who 
improved the closing fan, and Alphonse Baude's fan mold. The latter 
invented the machine for punching fan-frames, the best known at 
present. 

We are convinced, from our attentive examination through the Exhi- 
bition, that France has no foreign competition to fear, and that France 
still holds thcvfirst rank among the tasteful industries combining art 
and manufacture. 

GLOVES Ais^D SUSPENDERS. ^ 

Gloves were better represented this year in the Chamj) de Mars 
palace, Class oi, than thej Avere at any former Exposition. France had 
twenty-seven exhibitors; Belgium, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Den- 
mark, and Poland took part in the exhibition. We will examine the 
business in each one of those countries, beginning with France. 

FRANCE. 

France produces, annually, nearly two millions of dozens of kid gloves, 
of first, second, and third qualities, at the average price of forty francs a 
dozen, making a business of eighty millions of francs. Three-fourths of 
these gloves go abroad ; for in no other country of the world are gloves 
made so elegantly, well fitting, and cheaply as in France. Seventy 
thousand persons are emi)loyed in the glove business in France. 

The principal glove factories are at Annonay, Paris, and Milhau, for 
white leather; Paris, Grenoble, Chaumont, Saint Junien, Luueville, 
Eennes, Nancy, and Blois, for gloves; Niort for buck, beaver, and chamois 
military gloves ; Yendome, Niort, and Milhau, for chamois. 

1 Translated from the rei)ort of jNI. Carceuac, of the Intornational Jury, Vol. IV, p. 330. 



76 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

ENGLAND. 

Next to France, England is the conntry tliat produces the most and 
best articles; yet it is largely indebted to our industry, and imports 
from us every year quantities of raw material for its factories. Till 
recently England had the monopoly of dog-skin gloves, but after some 
trials France has sncceded in making them as well as our neighbors. 

Our knowledge is con^ned to a single English house, that of Dent, 
Alcroft & Co., which does a business of thirty millions of francs a year, 
buying, at the same time, twelve millions in gloves from France. 

England had no exhibitors at the Exposition. 

RUSSIA. 

A few French manufacturers settled in Eussia and opened their 
industry in that country ; they continue to buy their white skins from 
France, and even have them dyed and cut here; and, as they make the 
best quality, their business rivals ours, and has absolutely closed Kussia 
to our manufacturers. 

BELGIUM, GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA. 

Glove-making has not remained stationary in those countries, and 
the trade was well represented at the Exposition of 18G7. Cheap arti- 
cles are in favor there. Lamb- skin gloves are extensively manufactured, 
except in Belgium, where kid is preferred, and they are generally sold 
at home, very few being sent abroad. Our manufacturers sliould 
notice this competition and prepare to contend with it, as it is likely to 
increase, and, perhaps, become formidable. 

ITALY. 

Gloves are cheax) in Italy, but the quality is not good. Most that 
are made there are consumed in the country, so our manufacturers have 
nothing to fear from that quarter. 

SPAIN, PORTUGAL, SWEDEN, NORWAY, DENMARK, AND POLAND. 

The gloves made in all these countries are consumed at home ; how- 
ever, Sj)ain is making improvement in the manufacture of gloves, and 
tbey are well made. We must mention that some handsome Swedish 
gloves were exhibited by a Frenchman living in Copenhagen. 

Up to this time France has kept the lead in the glove market of the 
world; but our success excites emulation abroad, and many foreign 
manufacturers in other countries are now making gloves of such ele- 
gance as to attract the attention of distant customers and excite our 
own envy. Our exports to Eussia, Germany, and Belgium have percep- 
tibly diminished, and other markets of the world may soon be closed to us. 

In consideration of future impediments to French glove-making, our 
manufacturers should hunt out and adopt the best methods of produc- 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 77 

tion; we allude to the division of labor, a system tliat was opposed at 
first, but will filially succeed, as it will cause a better st^de of inauufac- 
ture, and will become more profitable to the laborer. The prosperity of 
tbe large establishments that have adopted the system of division of 
labor shows its advantages. 

It is impossible to see that machine-cutting is far preferable to hand- 
cutting, just as the adoption of the ridelle has produced regularity in 
cutting. The great advantage in the system of labor division consists 
in correctness and mauagement of work, and customers have lately 
found this out. The system of the division of labor has already been 
adopted in Belgium and Austria. Since its adoption in France the pay 
of glove-makers has advanced from twenty to fifty per cent., and it 
furnislies constant work to women and girls, giving them an honest 
livelihood. 

The introduction of tawing in France helped the Annonay factory, facili- 
tated the treatment of hides, and utilized much raw material that was 
formerly useless; thus doe-skins that were only used for inferior gloves 
up to 1862, now serve for a glove equal to the English dog skin glove. 

The production and consumi^tion of skin gloves has greatly increased 
in ten years, and, of course, the raw material has increased in cost; thus 
hair-skins that sold for forty-five francs a dozen at Poitiers or Chalons, 
ten years ago, now bring sixty-three francs a dozen; and though this 
has raised the price of gloves to the consumer, the manufacture of gloves 
has in no way decreased. 

Skins intended for gloves undergo many manipulntions, according to 
the quality of gloves to be made out of them ; thus they are tawed for 
glossy gloves and Swedisli gloves, and furred or ^'•ramaillees^^ for buck or 
beaver gloves. The tawing of skius is intended to deprive them of hair, 
and take out the fatty matter of the skins, as well as to give them the 
softness necessary for the factory. After maceration in a solution of 
lime and orpiment for some time, the skins are curried and beat, and 
subjected to various processes to take out the lime and grease, and give 
them the requisite softness. They are then fermented to soften the fibers, 
the fermentation being stopped by a mixture of flour, yolk of eggs, and 
alum ; they are then dried and spread out. 

Chamois skins undergo a similar process. To dress sheep and lamb 
skius properly, they must lie longer in lime, to remove the wool. The 
sheep-skins are then split by means of a fine saw. The hair side serves 
for morocco; the flesh side is used for coarse army gloves. Lamb skins 
are too thin to undergo this process, but they are shaved or rufl'ed, and 
serve thus for castor gloves. After passing over the trestle, all skins are 
pressed and fulled ; then they are put into a tub of greasy water, to 
remain till used. After having been dried they are pumiced. 

Beaver and deer skins are pumiced after they have been colored. 

As we have already mentioned, sheep and lamb skins are chiefly used 
for castor gloves; ordinary doe-skin may be used for the same purpose ; 
doe-skins from Servia have been tried on a small scale. 



78 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

ELASTIC TISSUES.! 

SUSpI:NDEES, belts, aAKTERS, AND BRACELETS. 

France, Austria, aud England represented this industry at our fair ; 
France took the lead. The progress in this has been great and rapid, 
for it only dates from the time when India-rubber was first made into 
fiber, not many years ago ; yet it has reached a great degTee of perfection. 

Judging from the articles exhibited, Austria has not succeeded in 
making suspenders. England is represented by one house, that sent 
enough articles to show the style of her manufacture. If the houses in 
Leicester and Birmingham, that manufacture this kind of goods exclu- 
sively, had sent some of their productions, we could have judged better 
of the importance of this business among our neighbors. 

We make nine millions of francs' worth of suspenders, belts, and gar- 
ters, per year, one-third of which sum is sold at home; the rest is sent 
to America, Holland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. 

Before the use of gum tissues came into fashion, the bodies of sus- 
penders were made of cotton or leather, and the springs were of brass 
wire placed at each end, to give them elasticity. When Eatlier and 
Guibal introduced gum cloth into France, the old-style suspenders and 
garters disappeared. Eouen was the first city to take advantage of this 
novelty, and the two large houses of Lucien Fromage & Co., and Riviere 
& Co., make at least half the articles of this^kind produced in France. 
Mr. Fromage has done most for the business. He was first a weaver, 
then overseer, designer, machinist, and inventor. When we are told 
that the house sells suspenders at ten centimes and six francs a pair, 
and garters at four centimes and three francs, we can judge what the busi- 
ness must be, knowing the amount done per year. 

The gum-cloth business gives employment to fifteen hundred operatives 
at Rouen. The pay of men is from three to five francs a day ; for women, 
one to three francs; and for children, from ninety centimes to one and a 
half franc. The other factories for such articles are at Paris and Saint 
Etienne. 

The war in the United States forced manufacturers to use flax and 
jute instead of cotton, to keep their productions at a reasonable price; 
and competition now affects them. The use of cotton has been resumed 
in the tissues. 

1 From the report of M. Carcenac of the luternational Jury, Vol. IV, p. 337. 



CHAPTEE y. 
INFLUENCE OF CLOTHING UPON HEALTH. 

Influence op woolen clothing upon health — Effects of woolens upon the 
skin — sliagg\" woolen goods — protection afforded by woolens from the 
effects of sudden changes of temperature — woolens should be worn at 
NIGHT — Evil effects of clothing impervious to air. 

Kegarding it as not iminterestiug and as of great iiractical value to 
add to this report some remarks uj)on the hygienic influences of 
woolen clothing, I have procured the following memorandum on the 
subject from Dr. A. P. Merrill of 'New York, formerly a surgeon in the 
United States Army, and latterly a medical practitioner aud writer of 
distinction. 

Notwithstanding the common use of woolen clothing in both ancient 
and modern times, and the favorable impression made upon the minds 
of men in regard to it in civilized and in barbarous communities every- 
where, its virtues and excellences are as yet 'scarcely understood and 
appreciated among the mass of mankind. Woolen clothing is very gen- 
erally adopted and worn without inquiry as to its effects, or the manner 
of producing them. The proper study of the subject imi^lies a knowl- 
edge of physiology as connected with its hygienic influences, and more 
or less of pathology in reference to its remedial power. Without ad- 
verting to these in their details, which would occupy too much time and 
space, I venture to present some; views briefly, upon the general subject. 

The porosity of woolen goods is greater than that of silk, cotton, and 
linen fabrics, by which both absorption aud evaporation of the perspir- 
able fluids is facilitated, and thus are they dissipated from the body, 
keeping the surface comparatively dry and warm in cold w^eather, aud 
reducing tlie temperature of the skin in hot by the cooling process of 
greater evaporation. By virtue of this porosity, also, nir is retained in 
woolen textures, serving to increase their non- conduction of heat, and 
thus affording protection from the deleterious effects of sudden changes 
of temperature. This important feature of i^orosity in woolens is in- 
creased by the nap upon the surface, and they therefore become less 
efficient in shielding the body from cold when worn threadbare. Shaggy 
woolen goods, in the making of wliich the manufacturer attempts an 
imitation of the arrangements of nature in protecting animals from the 
influence of cold, are valuable as outer coverings, on account of the in- 
crease of this quality afforded by the nap. The sheep, of all animals, is 
best protected in this way ; but the wild animals inhabiting hyperborean 
regions, and especially such as seek their food in the icy waters of the 
Arctic Ocean, are provided with a dense coating of fine fur next the skin, 
with a longer, coarser, and less compact hairy covering, both which are 



80 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

imperfectly copied in woolen fabrics, with a shaggy surface. In the use 
of flaunel next the skin, this non-conducting power is increased by wear- 
ing two thicknesses of thin woolens, which afford better protection in 
cold weather than can be derived from a single covering containing an 
equal quantity of wool. More air is retained between the folds, and 
non-conduction of heat is further facilitated by the threads of one of the 
textures covering the interstices of the other. 

To this valuable quality of porosity and non-conduction of caloric in 
woolens is added the wholesome irritation of the skin produced by the 
friction of the woolly fiber, which, except in persons of undue cutaneous 
sensitiveness, is not a source of discomfort. The proportion of cases is 
small in which this dif&culty may not be overcome by the habit of wear- 
ing iiannel next the person, in both cold and warm weather. The fact 
of its being felt iu some instauces to an uncomfortable degree is evidence 
that the uniform excitation of the skin by woolens, even when unnoticed 
by the wearer, is one of the qualities to which its hygienic and remedial 
powers are due. This is not only useful to the skin itself, increasing 
and sustaining its functions as an important emunctory organ, but by 
reason of the sympathy existing between all the dermoid tissues, and 
especiallj" the skin and the mucous tissues of the digestive organs, this 
cutaneous excitation caused by woolen garments exercises beneficial influ- 
ences over the internal organs of the body in both health and disease. 
Hence the advantages derived from clothing debilitated persons, and 
especially children of slender organization and impaired digestion, in 
flannel. Children suffering from an abnormal irritability of the intesti- 
nal canal, causing either habitual constipation, or, more commonly, 
'^persistent diarrhea, derive great benefit from the use of woolen clothing. 
Under the erroneous impression that the invalid may suffer discomfort 
or injury from the supposed heating influence of woolen goods, the use 
of them is sometimes restricted to the winter season; but besides the 
exceptional cases to which 1 have referred, it is found by experience 
that both comfort and health are subserved by the constant wearing of 
flannel next the skin. Changes of season and climate require no other 
modification than the substitution of thick flannels for thin in ^^inter, or, 
what is generally better, the addition of another garment over the one 
worn in summer. 

Tlie agency of woolens in protecting the body from the evil effects of 
sudden changes of temperature is well illustrated by the use of loose gar- 
ments of thick woolen goods in furnaces and smelting works, Avhere the 
bodies of the operatives are much of the time exposed to a high tempera- 
ture, inducing them to seek, as often as they may have it in their power, the 
comforting influences of cold air. All observation proves that the con- 
stant use of woolens under such circumstances is conducive to both com- 
fort and health ; and we have little need of other argument in favor of 
the proper use of flannel garments in warm weather. 

Were it not that people are constantly exposed to the action of causes 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. *81 

of disease in tliese siuldeu transitions of temperature, in serious errors 
habitually practiced as regards the choice of both food and drink ; in all 
the irregularities of exercise, rest and sleep ; in malarial, epidemic, and 
contagious influences, and in all the uncertain and little understood 
agencies of bodily and mental disorder by which we are surrounded, it 
would be of little consequence about the choice of clothing for healthy 
subjects. But when w^e consider that some one or more of these dis- 
turbances of health is always acting, and that individuals are liable to 
the disorders produced pretty much in proportion to their i^redisposition 
to disease, it becomes important that we should be able to avail our- 
selves of every known preventive agency. In doing this it must be 
borne in mind, that this predisposition is generally greatest in the night 
and during sleep, at which time most attacks of disease are inaugurated. 
^,o common is this, indeed, that it has been and may well be doubted, 
whether any of the lata! epidemics prevailing in modern times ever 
m-ake their onset upon an individual in the day-time. Certainly it has 
been sufficiently proved by long experience and observation, that 
persons residing in the neighborhood of places infected with yellow fever, 
cholera, or plague, may visit and administer to the sick during the day 
with safety to themselves ; but if they venture to pass the night among 
them, especially should they have the temerity to sleep at night where 
the disease prevails, an attack is well-nigh inevitable. 

The danger of night exposure to the causes of disease is illustrated 
by the experience of sailors on the coast of Africa ; and also by the 
imprudent exposure of white men in the rice fields of the southern States. 
Such exposures during the night almost invariably invite a serious 
attack of endemic disease, even when such disease is not i)revailing to 
an unusual extent in the locality visited. In numerous instances, also, 
children are attacked by disease in the night, in consequence of an expo- 
sure of the body to the atmosphere without proper covering. These dele- 
terious influences of night in creating predisposition are apt to impress 
people with the idea of the constant unwholesomeness of night air, as 
differing in some respects from that respired during the day; but in most 
cases the effects are probably due to other causes. Were it not so, we 
could place little reliance upon preventive measures, for we have no 
means of dispensing with the use of night air. The principal if not 
the only injury resulting from its respiration, is probably from its chill- 
ing influence upon the lungs, which is instinctively guarded against by 
animals and savages by covering the nose. The birds place their beaks 
beneath their wings and feathers, other animals bury their noses in their 
furs or under their legs, and the negro instinctively hides his head 
beneath his bedding in the midst of his soundest sleep. Perhaps this 
practice, so universal, affords evidence, also, that in night respiration 
the animal system requires less oxygen. 

We are thus admonished of the necessity of adopting precautionary 
measures against both predispositions to and attacks of disease during 
6 c w F 



82 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

the night; and of all the suggestions which have been made with these 
views, none are believed to be of greater value than that of M'^oaring 
flannel next the skin. All the arguments in favor of sucli use during 
the day are of equal and even greater force at night, for the body requires 
the superficial irritation, the absorption and transmission of the per- 
spirable fluids, and the non-conduction of heat, even more during the 
sleeping than during the waking hours; and then, there are said to be 
certain physiologic necessities for air to be brought iuto contact with 
the skin both in sleeping and waking. The garment worn next the 
person while sleeping, therefore, should always be of wool, and those 
worn during the day dispensed with. To make the arrangement com- 
plete, and to give the sleeper the full benefit of woolen stuft's at the time 
of his greatest need, the sheets should also be of wool, and all the cov- 
ering above the sheets. 

In cold weather complaint is sometimes made that woolen bedding- 
does not afibrd suflicient warmth without an uncomfortable amount of 
weight. Every additional thickness, however, aids in the retention of 
air amid the textures, retarding evaporation and the radiation of heat 
from the body, and affords a medium, also, for the absorption of the 
fluids of perspiration, all which are facilitated by the selectiou of woolens 
well covered with nap. Additional warmth may readily be secured by 
placing over all the woolen coverings, or between the diflerent textures, 
cotton or linen spreads, sheets, or even paper. But after a while, in 
this case, the body of the sleeper, for Avant of evaporation, becomes 
moistened with the fluids of perspiration, making him liable to cold, 
besides removing the oxidating quality of the air, subjecting the sleeper 
to more or less depression of nervous energy. It is not uncommon, 
therefore, for persons trying this experiment to rise in the morning with 
headache, and with a feeling of languor and exhauation, disqualifying 
them for their performance of their daily duties. The use of quilts, 
bed-spreads of various kinds, comforts filled with cotton or feathers, oil- 
cloths, paper, and cotton and linen sheets, is to be deprecated as in some 
degree detrimental to health. Kobust aiul vigorous subjects may not 
readily feel the injurious effects, but feeble constitutions, women of great 
nervous excitability, and children, cannot subject themselves to these 
evils habitually without becoming aware of declining health and energy. 
Next to flannel and woolen blankets the best covering is the comfort 
filled with carded wool, but this shoidd be made of woolen textures of 
some kind. When impenetrable coverings are used they should be 
placed exterior to all the rest, that there may be a better chance for the 
absorption of the perspiration by the intervening woolens, and for the 
circulation of air in contact with the bod^'. Sometimes it is sufficient 
to lay such coverings across the feet, leaving all the rest of the bodj' to 
be covered by woolens alone. 

In the selection of woolen clothing the same principles are applicable, 
and the same precautions advisable as in the arrangement of bedding. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 83 

(jl-armeiits worn next the person are better made of flannel than of the 
hosiery now in common nse. The better nap of the flannel gives it an 
advantage, and what is of greater importance, the flannel garment is 
not apt to embrace the person so closely. Tightly fltting garments 
imi)ede the circulation of the blood in the skin, and retard the import- 
ant functions of secretion and absorption, besides preventing in some 
degree the contact of air. There are objections to every kind of 
woolen hosiery, and also to the use of the corset, which probably does 
more injury to health by its pressure upon the skin, conflned as it is 
between the corset and the ribs, and its imperviousness to air, than by 
the embarrassment given to the organs of respiration. Many women 
wear their corsets too loosely laced for the latter efteet, without escaping 
the former. As this article of dress is not likely to be dispensed with, 
it would be improved hy being made porous, so as to favor the trans- 
mission of vapor and air; and by being shaped and fitted to answer its 
purposes of compression, with a broad opening at the places of lacing 
upon the back and sides. 

In the further application ot the views and piinciples herein advo- 
cated, as applicable to personal clothing, it is desirable to avoid the 
use of cotton or linen fabrics orev the woolens worn next the person. 
To these there are the same objections as to the sheet over the woolen 
night-gown. If such obstructions to evaporation and circulation of 
air be used during the day, it is better that they be worn more remote 
from the surface of the body, Avith a greater number of woolen tissues 
intervening. Perhaps the water-proof overcoat may be less objection- 
able in the day, than the counterpane and comfort at night, even, 
although it may be less porous, and a better conductor of heat, because 
it sets more looselj^ upon the person, and admits of a better circulation 
of air beneath it. In the manner of using coverings of the body for 
the preservation of health and comfort, as well as in the means of pre- 
serving a healthy skin by frictions, and even in the matter of selecting 
food in reference to quality and quantity and times of feeding, we may 
sometimes derive useful instruction from the practice of men skilled in 
the care and management of valuable horses. The skins of tliese ani- 
mals are subjected to frictions, bathings, and protection from cold, 
requiring an amount of labor and skill, one-half of which might often 
secure the children of the family from attacks of painful and danger- 
ous disease. 

The feet are best protected bj' stockings made of common flannel, 
while boots and shoes should be sufiliciently porous for the transmission 
and evaporation of the perspiration, to prevent the accumulation of 
moisture. Neither the stocking nor shoe should fit so closely as to 
imi^ede the cutaneous circulation. Water-proof shoes secure warmth for 
a certain time, but when worn too long and the feet become moist from 
the accumulation of moisture this advantage is lost, and warmth and 
dryness can hardly be restored without exposing the bare feet to the 



84 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

fire. Excessive aud morbid secretions are often caused by coutiniug the 
feet iu close-fitting aud impervious coverings, giving rise to habitual 
coldness, and operating iujuriously upon the general health. 

Silken fabrics are next to be i^referred to woolen, and cotton stuffs 
are better than linen. Something might be said of electric iniiuences in 
connection with all these, the greatest non-conducting-power being 
awarded to silk. But this is a branch of the subject less thoroughly 
understood, and the reports which have been made in regard to electric 
treatment of disease leave the question of these influences in much 
doubt. Indeed the action of electric currents, and the use of conductors 
and non-conductors of electricity in clothing, either as remedies for or 
I)reventions of disease, afford little encouragement to hope for or expect 
important results, until new discoveries are made iu regard to these 
agencies. 

Although the views given in this paper may be in the main correct, 
•there are exceptions aud anomalies in connection Avith theni which 
deserve consideration. Sometimes there exists in individuals and in 
families a sensitiveness of the surface of the body which renders the 
irritation of woolens painful and even productive of cutaneous eruptions, 
and occasionally cases are met with in which colored flannels prove more 
troublesome than white. Used as a remedial agent also, woolens, so 
often useful, fail to iiroduce the good effects expected from them, and 
rheumatic aud neuralgic pains are relieved by wearing linen, cotton, or 
silk next the skin, Avoolens beiug continued as outer garments. It should 
be stated, also, that although woolens should in general be loosely worn, 
it is often the case that both adults and children, suffering with chronic 
diseases of the stomach and bowels, derive great advantage from wearing 
a broad woolen band drawn evenly and somewhat firmly round the body 
below the chest. For want of the firm resistance prevented by the ribs 
in the use of the corset, cutaneous circulation and secretion are not 
seriously impeded, while the pressure thus given appears to afford 
increased tone and vigor to the organs of digestion, aud to all the 
abdominal viscera. 



CLOTHING AND WOVEN FABRICS. 



85 



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PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 



^Statistics of manufactures of such textile fabrics and articles worn on the 
person as icere taxed under the internal revenue laws as the 'production 
of the United States, for the year ending June 30, 18G8.* 



Amownt of 
tax. 



Percent- 
age on 
value. 



Value of pi'o- 
duct. 



t'lotli ami otlicr fabiics of cotton 

Eaw cotton t 

Cloth and all textile knit or felted fabrics other than flax or 

jute and not elsewhere enumerated 

Woolens 

Silk and manufactures of 

(Nothing : 

Articles of, not of wool, woven, felted, or knit, oi' fi-oni 
fur or fiu' .skins 

Articles of, from fiu- 

Articles of, fi'oni India-rubber 

Boots and shoes, including those of India-rubber, and shoe 

strings 

Leather 

Hats, caps, bonnets, and hoods 

rmbrellas and parasols 

Watches and chains 

Hair 



!J6, ^22, 000 
22, 501, 000 

123, 200 

2, 813, 000 

133, 000 



121,000 

76, 000 

7,600 

2, 000, 000 

1,600,000 

425, 000 



56, 000 



$126, 000, 000 



2, 464, 000 

112,520,000 

2, 066, 000 



2, 420, 000 

;i, 800, 000 

152,000 

100,000,000 
04, 000, 000 
21,250,000 



■1,120,000 



( iloves, mittens, and ii\occasins made by sewing 

Hoop skirts 

Paper collars and all articles of di-ess made of paper . 

Pins 

I'lircad - 



52, 400 
94, 000 
51, 100 
29, 000 
167, 000 



Total 

Diamonds, emeralds, precious stones and imitatious thereof. 



337, COO 



2, 620, 000 
4, 700, 000 

2, 555, 000 
580, 000 

3, 340, 000 



450, 247, 000 



Conden.sed Irom the Comraissioner'.s report. 



t 3 and 2^} cents per pound. 



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